


The Plan

by staygold483



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Real Person Fiction, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Actor Tom Holland, Brother's Best Friend, Brothers, Childhood Friends, Developing Relationship, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff and Smut, Friends With Benefits, Friends to Lovers, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Original Character(s), Original Female Character(s) - Freeform, POV Original Character, Past Domestic Violence, Sex, Slow Burn, Smut, Teasing, Tom is a Sweetheart, safe sex, tom holland - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-01-14 16:43:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 25,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21161387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/staygold483/pseuds/staygold483
Summary: Tom has always been in your life, because of the simple fact that he is your brother's best friend. You three have spent most of your lives growing up together, and you trust each other implicitly. When you have a work event, Tom offers to help you get rid of a certain colleague, which seems harmless enough. You trust him, you're comfortable with him, and he would protect you as well as your brother would.So what happens when the night takes an (un)expected turn? Is your relationship going to suffer? Or blossom into something more?





	1. Funny Business?

You were absent-mindedly tapping your fingers on the table, staring at the front door. Ten minutes, it had been. Ten minutes since your mother announced dinner was ready, and yet, here you were with an empty plate, and a belly grumbling at the sight. 

“Why do we have to wait? I’m starving!” You whined, making your mother laugh. 

“You’re hardly going to starve sweetie. It’s proper manners to wait for your brother and Tom.” Your mum explained as she continued straightening out the cutlery by her hand. You could smell the dinner keeping warm in the oven, your favourite BBQ styled chicken and cheesy potatoes, and you whined again. 

“They’re _always_ late. It’s only Harry. Plus, Tom isn’t even family so technically…” You started rising out of your chair, but stopped after the cough and death glare you received from your mum. You pouted and started fiddling with your fork. Well, less fiddling, more stabbing the tablecloth.

“He might as well be.” Your mother sang. You rolled your eyes. 

Tom had been friends with your brother for decades, eons in fact. Since they were little kids. Your mother had pretty much adopted Tom after him and Harry ended up in hospital after falling from a tree at the park. They only broke a small bit of their arm, but the fact that Tom had stuck with Harry, called the ambulance himself despite being like eight years old, and kept asking about him even when they were in different rooms, well that was enough for your mother to see that he was the type of friend she wanted Harry to keep around. And since then, she had made sure he_ had_ stuck around – always asking when Harry had last seen him, when he was coming round for dinner again. She damn near cried with happiness when Harry said they were moving in together after college, and you suspected it was more on the side of relief. If mum couldn’t be there for Harry, Tom was the next best thing in her eyes. 

You on the other hand, got the brunt of this brother/friendship they had going on. Despite being only two years younger than Harry, you got all the schtick that came with being the younger sister, which involved a lot of teasing, and a lot of pranks, but having no choice but to spend time together. As you all got older, it was paired with everyone you tried to date being intimidated by the two hulking boys that always seemed to be behind you, and everyone _they_ dated stuck their nose up at ‘the girl that always follows them around’. 

Obviously, being in your mid twenties now, this was less of bother to all three of you. The boys were a package deal, and even though you didn’t live with them, you popped in when you could, and both Harry and Tom were quick to shut down any negativity towards you. 

You smiled as you remembered one of Tom’s latest fling attempts, who screamed at him for even letting you into their flat. Tom had shrugged and then flung her bag into the hall, and the subsequent facial expression of the girl should have been framed and hung in a museum. Annoying as they could be, you were grateful to have such solid familial relationships. 

However, that gratefulness quickly diminished every time they were late for food. 

Which seemed to be every time your mother invited them round.

You groaned at your mother, ready to start another tirade of why she should let you eat now.

Then the door opened.

“Men are here! Where is the feast!” You rolled your eyes and stood as your brother and Tom waltzed into the dining room. 

“Fucking finally.” You shouted as you walked over to the kitchen. “I’m getting first dibs on the potatoes!” You grabbed the bowl of potatoes, sidestepping your mother who had come to grab the rest, and headed to the table, putting the bowl right in front of your seat before plopping down. 

“Oh no, we have walked into unsafe territory.” Your brother whispered to Tom. “We’ve starved the elusive Luka.” You stuck your tongue out at him. They sat down next to you. 

“What took you so long?” You sniped. 

“We had…important business to attend.” You narrowed your eyes. 

“You had no business, Harrison.”

“It was! Super important business. Right Tom?” Tom nodded at you.

“You were playing Xbox, weren’t you?” Both boys’ eyes widened. You ‘hmphed’ at them and began loading your plate.

“I guess it’s ladies first.” Your father said with a smirk, making you smile innocently, passing the spoon to him after you were done. You instantly start shovelling the food into your mouth. 

“Jesus sis, ever heard of being ladylike?” You looked to your brother and shook your head, your mouth being too full to say anything. 

“So, how is everyone?” Your mum interrupted your sibling fewd. “Harrison, work going okay?” Your brother smiled and nodded. 

“Yeah, working hard on that TV series I was telling you about, and my agent is looking at lining up some auditions for Broadway.” You snorted, making his head whip round to you. “What?”

“You? On Broadway? You don’t sing.” You said after swallowing your food. 

“I do too sing.” 

“I’ve heard you sing, you can’t sing for shit.”

“Language.” Your mother sighed. 

“I can, I’ve been practising.” Harrison swelled his chest out, but you just rolled your eyes. 

“That’s fantastic. Let me know how that goes baby.” Your mother smiled at him, then turned round to Tom. “What about you darling? Still doing the Spider thing?” You snorted again. 

“Uhh..It’s Spiderman, and yeah, about two months from wrapping up the film. I’m really pleased with it.” Tom replied, a modest smile creeping over his lips. 

“Must be so exciting! All that action and jumping.”

“Think he does a little more than that mother.” You muttered. 

“Yes, he must also get his hair done.” Your father chimed in, his eyes meeting yours and making you giggle. You and your dad always did have the same, sarcastic humour. 

“Oh shush you two. I think it’s admirable. We’d all be very bored if my boys didn’t make these films and shows.” The two boys in question seemed to swell with pride, their egos inflating at your mother’s words. “Luka?” Your head snapped up, mouth full of food once again. You grunted in response. “How’s your work?” You swallow your food. 

“My work?” Your mother nodded. “How’s my work? It’s fine. You know, work stuff. I go and earn money.”

“Oh come on sis, you do something, I bet you got loads of cool stories!” Harrison probed. Your job revolved around assessing school’s capabilities of providing provisions for children with special needs. Harry was right, you had loads of stories, but mostly about the parents and the heads fighting while the children played with bubbles.

“Nope. Even if I did, I couldn’t tell you.” You touched your finger to your nose. “Confidential.” 

“You bore.”

“I’m not a bore. I value my job and my children. It’s the rest of them that piss me off.” 

“What do you mean?” Tom asked. 

“The guys at the office, throwing a party this weekend and I just…ugh.”

“You can’t be bothered to go to a party?” 

“I don’t mind the party, Tom, it’s my colleagues. Can’t stand some of them.”

“Sometimes you have to suck it up.” Your dad interjected. 

“I know.” You shrugged before finishing your food. 

“Why can’t you stand them?” Tom persisted.

“Because some of them think it’s more important to get in your pants than do your job.” You said, turning to Tom just in time to see his hands clench around his cutlery. 

Your mum sighed. “Language, Luka!” You mouthed a sorry to her, and she returned to cutting her chicken. “I hope you have reported them.” You grimaced. 

“You haven’t reported them?” Tom asked. 

“It’s a lot of hassle. The guy is really in with the seniors. I just avoid him.”

“And he’s going to this party?” You narrow your eyes at him.

“Why? Gonna rough him up for me?” You laughed, stopping when you saw Tom’s face completely stone cold. “It’s fine, I’m a big girl.” You nudged him with your elbow. He nodded and turned back to his food, but he didn’t seem convinced. 

A couple hours later, you had finally started to digest your food, and you were getting sleepy. You sat up from your lounging position on the sofa and slapped your hands on your knees. 

“Right,” You announced, attracting looks from the rest of your family. “I’m heading off. Gotta get the bus.”

“Where’s your car?” Harrison mumbled. 

“Getting fixed. It was making a clunking noise and turning up the music wasn’t working anymore.” 

“Luka…” Your brother scowled, but you waved him off. 

“It’s fine. I’ll call you tomorrow mum.” You stood slowly, stretching out. 

“Honey, can you walk Luka to the bus stop?” Your mum asked, looking at your brother. Harrison frowned. 

“I can’t get up.”

“Don’t be lazy and take your sister.”

“I’ll do it.” Tom said, standing up beside you, and you looked at him questioningly. “I gotta burn off all this food somehow.” He shrugged, gesturing to the door. You waved to your family and headed out, Tom following behind you. As you walked down the street, your conversation led back to Tom’s film. 

“You seem to really enjoy being this ‘Spiderboy’.” You teased. 

“Oh come on, you know it’s Spiderman!” You laughed at his whine. “And yeah, it’s amazing, I mean, I’m working with Robert Downey Junior! He’s all kinds of phenomenal, and little old me is acting in a film with him!”

“I mean sure, but he’s no Chris Evans. I like a man who looks like he could bend metal to keep you safe.” You dramatically put your hand on your chest, then laugh at Tom’s startled reaction. 

“Technically, my character can bend metal.” He pointed out, making you smile. 

“Trying to get me attracted to you, are we?” His eyes widened.

“No! Just…I’m not really sure why I said that to be honest.” You nudge him in the side. 

“I’m just teasing.” You both reach the bus stop. Tom stands with you. “You don’t have to wait you know.”

“I do too. Your mother entrusted me with you.”

“I’m not an object.”

“Hmm, but I’d rather know you got on the bus safe.” You shrugged, not finding it important to argue. “So…about this party…” You frown. “Are you going to go?”

“I don’t know. I do want to, but I know if I do he’s gonna try again like the whole night, when I just wanna enjoy myself. And if I don’t turn up then people are gonna ask why I wasn’t there, and I just … ugh. Men are annoying.” Tom nodded as you ranted, silent, like he was mulling something over. 

“You know,” he finally spoke. “There is another way you can get this guy off your case.”

“Kill him and make it look like an accident?” Tom smiled, but shook his head. 

“You need him to see you with someone else.” 

“Oh yes, because the only way I can stop a man being harassing is to show him I belong to another person.”

“You know, one day your feminism is going to piss someone off.”

“I’d rather piss someone off than be used like a doormat, or an object for someone else to drool over.” Tom opened his mouth, then closed it. You smiled in victory. 

“Ok, I accept that you are right, you shouldn’t need to, but, men are basic creatures. You need to just act like you're with someone who could smush him, and he’ll be too scared to try anything.”

“Right, because I have a line of hulking eligible partners waiting to date me.” You scoffed. 

“Maybe not a line, but…someone who could bend metal would fit the bill?” He smiled teasingly, and you caught on. 

“Oh my god…you’d ask Chris Evans?!” His face dropped. 

“N-no..Luka, I meant me.” You laughed. “Hey!” You stopped, looking at him.

“Oh you’re serious.”

“I got muscles! I’ve had to do loads of training for this film, look!” He lifted up his shirt, very suddenly, to show you that he had, in fact, a lot of muscles hiding under there. You laugh again, and reach forward to pull his shirt down. 

“Look, that’s sweet, but it’s fine, I’ll just tell him off myself.”

“How’s that worked so far?” You frowned and folded your arms. “Exactly.” Silence stretched between you as you considered his offer. 

“Harrison wouldn’t like it.” You finally muttered. “You taking me on a date.”

“It’s not a date, just an accompaniment to a party. And Harrison would like it less if you got groped by some creep. Remember what he did to Tony?”

Tony was one of Harrison’s other friends, notorious for being a ‘womanizer’ and objectifying woman. Tony is the only person to hit on you in the presence of her brother, and he received a black eye for not stopping when he was asked to. Harrison may irritate you, but he’s fiercely protective. 

“That’s…a very good point.” You muttered, just as the bus appeared down the street. 

“Hey, think about it and let me know. But you know I wouldn’t make things weird, and I could definitely deck the guy if needs me.” You nodded, holding out your hand for the bus, mulling over his words as it pulled up next to you. 

“I’ll text you.” You waved at him, he smiled and waved back, and you got on the bus.

The next day, you were in your flat, working on research for one of your cases, music playing faintly in the background. You really did love your job. You could work at your own pace, liaise with schools and social workers and care homes on the strategies needed to support children with special needs, and have a go at people if they didn’t do what you said, with a whole load of legal backing. You had visited the clients you needed to in the morning, and rather than sitting in the stuffy office, you figured you would complete your paperwork in the comfort of your own home. Away from _Steven_. 

Your blood riled up at the thought of the scumbag. You breathed the negativity away and took a sip of your coffee. Then your phone buzzed. You picked it up, looking at Tom’s name across your screen. 

_T: Any thoughts?_

You smiled to yourself before typing out your response. 

_L: I have a lot of thoughts, Spidey-Boy._

_T: Ha ha. I’m serious. _

_L: Are you questioning a particular thought?_

_T: The thought that we discussed at the bus stop._

You sighed, pushing your folder off your lap as you stood up, wondering to the fridge to get some snacks before replying. 

You had given it a lot of thought, and to be honest, there was no real reason for you to say no, other than your pride. You’d always wanted to be the boss bitch that could deal with anything independently, but you were starting to think that this is one of the situations where you couldn’t be that bitch. Even this morning, Steven had looked down at your legs before asking if you wanted a lift in his car to your meetings. Meetings that were nowhere near where he needed to go. You shuddered at the memory, and looked back at your phone while stuffing some falafel in your mouth. 

_L: I have conditions. _

_T: Shoot. _

_L: One, we don’t tell Harrison. Two, no funny business._

_T: Funny business?_

_L: I don’t want you telling strangers stuff like how we have sex to keep up the act. I have to think of my public image. And your publicist would have a field day._

_T: That’s fair enough. Anything else?_

_L: It’s not local, my senior has booked out loads of hotel rooms for us to stay over after._

_T: Meaning?_

_L: Well…we would have to room together. _

_T: Like we haven’t done that before?_

You thought back to all the nights you, Tom and Harrison would watch films in one of your rooms and pass out on top of each other. He was right, this is no different, right? Your phone buzzed you out of your thoughts.

_T: See you Saturday. _


	2. Welcome To Women’s Entire Lives.

You’d gone for a dark, slightly shimmery purple dress that came down to the middle of your thigh, clung to your body, and had a halterneck top with a black band that encircled your neck. You kept your hair up, in an attempt of one of those loose buns you’d seen on the internet, strands of hair falling around your face. For your make up, you did the only make up you were ever comfortable with; winged eyeliner. Who actually had the time to do all that other face crap?

You straightened up and looked in the mirror. You felt good. This was going to be eventful. You pulled your Doc Martin boots on over your socks and grabbed your leather jacket, shoving your keys and phone in your pockets, then there was a knock on your door. You opened it to find Tom standing the other side, wearing black jeans, a white t-shirt and a black suit jacket. His hair was as wild as ever, and you liked that. You never liked the guys who looked like they spent longer than you to get ready. 

“Hi, nice outfit.” You smiled. 

“You too.” He smiled back. “Where is it we’re going?”

“Oh it’s in the Hilton hotel out by Redhill, so we gotta high tail it on the train there.” He face fell. 

“That’s so far! I hate trains, can’t we get an Uber?”

“Unless you wanna spend like sixty quid, no.”

“I cou-“ You held a hand up.

“No. You’re my guest to this event, you’re not paying. Regardless how much money you have.” He shrugged. 

“Fine. But just for the record, I have quite a bit of money, so if you want to be spoiled like a proper date, let me know.” He winked, then held his arm out for you.

“It’s not a date.” You sang, looping your arm in his.

“You say that, but here we are, dressed up, heading to a party, and we even have a room booked.” He bit his bottom lip and raised his eyebrows, trying to be sexy, but it just made you laugh. 

“A room with a couch no doubt, which is where you’ll be sleeping if you try anything mister.” You closed the door behind you and started heading down the hall together. 

“Yeah yeah, I know you hate sleeping alone.” 

“I sleep alone all the time.” You protested, as Tom hit the button for the lift. He turned to you with a _ very_ sceptical look on his face.

“Tell me, right now, how many stuffed animals do you have in your bed?” He asked, making you pout. 

“Fair point.”

As soon as you arrived at the party, you were impressed. Tom had opened the door for you, linked your arms together, and walked in like he was showing you off. A few of your colleagues had already spotted you and given you surprised looks, and you couldn’t tell whether it was because they knew Tom was your brother’s best friend, or because they knew Tom Holland, the Actor. Still, you pushed your awkwardness down, and focused on the fact that you were at a party with someone you were very comfortable with. 

“Drink?” Tom’s voice pulled you out of your thoughts, and you nodded, pointing over to where the bar was. You walked together, because your arms were still linked, and it was relatively smooth, probably because you and Tom were about the same height. You drummed your fingers on the bar until Tom’s hand covered yours, stopping your nervous tic. You smiled sheepishly at him. 

“Sorry.” You mumbled. 

“It’s okay, but there’s nothing to be nervous about.”

“They’re all looking.”

“I am a famous actor you know.” He smiled broadly.

“I dunno about famous, but you’ll get there one day.” You pinched his cheek, just like your mum does to him, and he laughed, swatting your hand away. 

“Rude.” The barman finally turned to you both, and you both ordered a pint. You drank it deeply until you felt Tom’s hand on your arm. “Luka, chill. We’re not gonna pull this off if you get smashed in the first half hour.”

You put your glass down and breathed. He was right, you needed to keep some wits about you. You cleared your throat, and cleared your anxieties. Well, as much as you could. 

“Right, let’s go over the plan.” You’d spent the train ride concocting what you were both going to do, but controlling your anxiety meant you had to repeat everything you said or planned a million times so you felt 100% sure. 

“You know the plan.” Tom’s smile was warm and relaxing to you. “Point him out to me, we act like we’re on a date, I’ll stomp on any advances he makes.” You smiled, tucking one of your stray hairs behind your ear. 

“And we met through Harry, and –“

“And I thought you were so beautiful, that I asked his permission to take his sister out.” You nod, taking a much smaller sip of your drink. “Luka, we’ve got this.”

You nod again. Maybe you did. You look up at him, his face completely genuine. You were glad you agreed to bring him; anyone else would have made you question their intentions, but Tom? Tom was pretty much a brother to you. He knew everything about you, your anxiety, your quirks, your likes and dislikes. Rattling all that info off to anyone that questioned you would be easy. 

“Right, of course we do. Now, let’s see if we can find that scumbag.” You said as you both pick up your drinks and turn around to see –

“Steven.” You growled at the creep in front of you. Everything about this dude pissed you off. He straightened up tall, looking between you and Tom, and you immediately felt Tom’s arm wrap around your waist. 

“Luka! I was about to send out a search party for you.” Steven said with a waggle of his eyebrows. 

“Why?” You asked, trying to make yourself sound as bored as possible. Steven’s eyebrows shot up in surprise.

“Because you weren’t here! I was starting to think you weren’t going to show.”

“Well, you have no reason to keep tabs on me Steven.” You said, matter-of-factly. Tom’s hand clenched into the flesh on your hip. “This is Tom.” You jabbed your thumb in Tom’s direction, and watched as Steven looked him up and down, holding his hand out slowly for a handshake, and Tom just took another sip of his drink. 

“Alright mate?” Tom said, looking him directly in the eyes until Steven lowered his hand, then cleared his throat.

Steven turned his attention back to you, and looked you up and down, just as he had with Tom, but you saw something in his eyes change the meaning of the action. 

“Luka, you look absolutely delicious.” Steven said, winking at you after his eyes finally came back up to yours. “Is that new?” You shrugged, trying to keep your breaths even as you felt the anger boiling up inside of you. “You should wear it round the office more.”

“Hardly appropriate.” Tom interjected, and you could hear the sharp tone in his words. You put a hand over his on your hip, running your fingers over his knuckles as if that would calm him down. 

“How do you two know each other?” Steven asked dryly, his eyes snapping back to Tom. 

“She’s my girlfriend.” Tom spat, his eyes narrowing at the man who suddenly seemed to shrink a foot shorter. 

“I didn’t – Luka I didn’t know you had a boyfriend!”

“I didn’t realise it was important to keep you updated on my personal life.” You drained your drink after saying that, almost slamming it on the bar behind you, waved to the bartender then pointed to your drink. The bartender nodded knowingly and got straight to pulling you another pint.

“Well, it’s just nice conversation isn’t it?” Steven sneered, before plastering a clearly fake smile across his face. “So Tom, what is it you do?”

“I’m an actor. Doing a little film at the minute actually, don’t know if you’ve heard of it, it’s called Spiderman?” You watch Steven’s face fall as he realises, and bite your lip to contain your giggle as you turned around  
to grab your fresh pint (thank you bartender!). 

“Oh you’re…you’re the Spiderman? Yes I…I remember reading about you I think…”

“Yeah, it’s great, I do a lot of my own stunts actually, so I’ve had to do loads of training and bodybuilding type stuff, but there’s no real substitute for being able to perform your own fight in mid air with five other actors.” You take a sip as you hear Tom boast, Steven’s face seemingly getting paler by the minute. “Especially Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth, they are absolutely huge, so I’ve had to work really hard to be able to drop kick them to the ground.” You smile up at Tom, taking your hand off his to put on his cheek. 

“Seeing you kick their butts is so worth the hours you spend in the gym everyday, babe.” You muse, drawing Tom’s attention to you. He smiled, a twinkle in his eye telling you that you just did a great job. Your eye contact breaks when you hear a cough to the side of you, and you turn back to see Steven pulling his collar slightly. 

“I…well it was nice seeing you. I’m just going to … mingle, I’ll…see you later, Luka.” Steven stepped forward, as if he was about to hug you, or something to a similar effect, then he looked up at Tom and stepped back instead. “Have a good time.” He spun around and stalked off away from you both.

Then you burst out laughing. 

“Jesus fuck.” Tom laughed, leaning on the bar, his hand on his stomach as he tried to control himself. “When you said he was hitting on you, I didn’t think it was this bad.” 

“Welcome to women’s entire lives.” Tom’s laughter died down a bit. “That was amazing though, he looked like he was going to shit his pants.”

“I think we did an adequate job, my dear.” Tom held his glass up to you, and you happily clinked yours against his. “Hey, when did you get a refill?!” You shook your head and looked over for the bartender.


	3. I'm Testing Something

You spent the next couple of hours playing a fun little game. You and Tom would chat to your co-workers, who absolutely fan-girled over the ‘gorgeous actor’ you’d brought, or you’d be dancing, and you were having a great time. Then whenever Tom left you alone, for the toilet, or to get some more drinks (or snacks in your case), you timed how long it would take Steven to appear by your side. 

The record so far was three seconds. 

You always did the same, listened to him drivel on about what-not, grunting in response, staring at Tom’s figure until he caught your eyes and realised what was happening. Then the game was how long would it take Steven to disappear once Tom had started walking back to you. 

The record so far was two seconds. 

This time, Tom was in the toilet, and Steven, of course, was by your side as you picked at the snacks on the bar. But this time, Steven wasn’t talking about himself, or how you looked, but _ Tom_.

“I just don’t see it, Luka. He doesn’t seem like a very attentive boyfriend. He’s left you alone so often.” You rolled your eyes at Steven’s words. 

“You would know.” You muttered. 

“And I don’t mean to pry,” Steven continued, clearly oblivious to what you had said. “But you two haven’t even kissed! Seems a bit odd to me.” You frown at him, and open your mouth, ready to argue, when you feel a presence behind you. 

“We don’t like to shove PDA down people’s throats.” Tom’s low voice echoed around your ears, and Steven visibly gulped. “I feel pretty secure in my relationship that we can save all that stuff for our own private residence.” Tom looped his arm around your shoulder and nuzzled his nose below your ear. It tickled, but you bit your lip so you didn’t laugh. 

“Oh, right, well…oh, Susan! Yep, coming!” Steven ran off, nowhere near where Susan Tremlin was actually standing. 

Once you were clear, you finally released your laugh and stepped out of Tom’s hold. 

“This is getting ridiculous.” Tom said, his teeth clenched. “He definitely knows we are together, the slimy little runt.” 

“Hey,” You put your hands on Tom’s arms. “It’s fine, it is working. Kind of. He’s just suspicious because…”

“Because we’re not shoving our tongues down each other’s throat?”

“Well...yeah.” You and Tom stare at each other for a breath. “We’re not going to.” His eyes widen. 

“No! Of course not.” He sighed, fiddling with his fingers. 

“Sorry if this is making you uncomfortable.” You said quietly, but Tom shook his head. 

“This is what you brought me for Luka, I just didn’t think he’d be so…”

“Relentless?” You offered. 

“Exactly! God he comes over every five minutes! How do you get any work done in the week?” You shrugged, then had some of your drink. “Regardless, I’m having fun.” 

“How is this fun?”

“I dunno,” he said, smiling. “It’s like hide and seek. But he’s just really good. Maybe we do need to up our game.”

“Tom I’m really opposed to making out with you just to tell him to shove off.”

“He’s literally staring at us right now.” You look over your shoulder, where Tom’s eyeline was, and sure enough, Steven was staring at you both. And you realised you were both standing a good half foot apart from each other. You groaned and grabbed Tom’s hand, dragging him across the room to the patio doors and onto the deck outside. It was decorated, fairy lights on the fence, balloons next to the chairs and candles on the tables.

You breathed in the fresh air. Cold, slightly breezy, perfect autumn weather. 

“I think we should consider it.” Tom said from beside you. “Everyone else is fine, they don’t suspect a thing.” You turn to look at him. 

“I don’t like the idea of kissing you.” You stuck your tongue out, making Tom frown.

“I’m not that bad looking, am I?”

“You know it’s not that.”

“Then what? It will definitely get him off your case.”

“Because, Tom!”

“Your argument is outstanding.” You shove his shoulder, making him laugh. 

“You’re like my brother.” Tom’s laughter subsided, and he stepped slightly closer to you. 

“But I’m not.” He said, and you noticed his eyes drift down to your mouth. 

“We said no funny business. This counts as funny business.” 

“I would argue that funny business includes sex. A kiss isn’t going to turn into funny business. And a kiss is likely to shut this dude’s creepiness down, I guarantee it.” You folded your arms as Tom rambled on. 

“You also guaranteed that just bringing you here would stop that.”

“And it did.”

“Only while you’re around me.” You pointed out.

“Still better than if you came alone.” You huffed, but you knew he was right. You both stood in silence, and you toed the ground while you thought. 

“One kiss?” You finally said, making Tom’s lips twitch as though he was about to smile. 

“I should think that’d be enough. If you’re a bad kisser I don’t wanna sign up for an evening of washing machine mouth.” You shoved his shoulder again, but he just threw his arm over your shoulder and kissed the top of your head. “Seriously though,” He continued. “If you don’t want to, it’s fine. I just think it’ll be the thing that seals the deal.” 

“I’ll think about it.” You said, nodding at him. “Now, let’s do some actual socialising.” You pointed over to one of the outside tables, where one of the people you actually liked from work was sitting. You and Tom walked over, his arm still around your shoulder. 

“Hey! Luka!” Elspeth smiled widely and stood up as you approached, giving you a sloppy kiss on your cheek. You caught a whiff of her wine breath and laughed. 

“Enjoying yourself Elspeth?” 

“Not as much as you clearly are!” She jeered, looking ‘not so subtly’ at Tom. “You are fantastically gorgeous.” She pointed a very wobbly finger at Tom, who expertly took her hand and kissed her knuckles. Elspeth’s cheeks instantly went red and she squealed. 

“Thank you, Elspeth, was it?” Tom asked, in a very charming way, making Elspeth giggle and nod. “Mind if we join?” Elspeth nodded again and pointed to the vacant seats, which you gladly took. 

You got into an enjoyable conversation with her, and the man she was clearly trying to get with, Jonny, who worked in your IT department. You commented on his beard, which was admirably groomed and reached his chest, and all of a sudden Elspeth’s fingers were all up in it, making Jonny look quite scared. But he was a good sport, and gently pulled her fingers out before changing the subject. You did notice, however, that once he’d took her fingers out of his beard, their fingers stayed linked together on the arm of the chair. 

Tom’s arm was comfortably resting on the back of your chair, and you did your best to remember all the nuances you’d developed over the evening; touching his chest anytime you mentioned his name, his fingers stroking your arm when he mentioned yours, looking at him and imagining he was the light of your life, and sprinkling in ‘babe’ wherever you could. 

That all changed when Steven decided to join you, with a woman who looked eerily similar to you. He introduced her as ‘Lindsay’, pulled out her chair as she sat, and then mimicked what Tom was doing by draping his arm across the back of her chair. 

You felt yourself stiffen, not wanting to believe he was still trying to gain your attention, or make you jealous, but Tom pulled you (and your chair) closer, so that you were practically buried into his side. His hand also became a bit more prominent on your arm, like he was scared you would escape. The sensation of being enclosed by Tom relaxed you somewhat.

“So, Luka and Tom,” You both turned to Steven as he spoke. “How did you two meet?” 

“Umm…” You started. “I don’t really…”

“I’ll tell them babe, you’ve had to explain it to so many people already, I’ll take this one.” Tom said, completely saving you. You smiled at him, hoping your thanks was obvious. “I’m actually best mates with her brother, so we’ve known each other for years. One day I just realised how beautiful she was, and that I wanted to spend time with just her, instead of with her and Harrison.” 

“Aww, that’s so cute.” Elspeth cooed, her elbows coming to rest on the table and plonking her head into her hands. 

“Harry’s great, but his farts can ruin the mood sometimes.” Tom continued, making the table laugh. Well, everyone except Steven. “So I asked Harrison if I could take Luka out.”

“Ohmygod you asked her brother for permission?! That’s ADORABLE!” Elspeth squealed, and even Jonny laughed at the noise. 

“Wouldn’t be right otherwise.” Then Tom turned to you. “So I took her out, and it was the best decision I ever made.” Tom then tucked one of your stray hairs behind your ears. “Kissed her that same night and asked her to be my girlfriend, and here we are.” You felt yourself being drawn in to his eyes. He was good at this spiel. 

“I hope you don’t mind me asking, but Luka just hasn’t mentioned you until now.” Steven interrupted your moment, and you felt your teeth clench. 

“Well we both agreed to keep it on the down-low. With me and my film and everything, we didn’t want to turn it into a public spectacle. So we decided just to tell the important people.” At the word ‘important’, Tom turned to look directly at Steven, who shifted a bit in his chair. 

“Ugh you two are just so cute together.” Lindsay said, waving her hand. “I wish I had that.” 

“I dunno,” Steven said, his voice raising slightly. “I haven’t even seen them kiss. They seem more buddy buddy than a couple.”

You saw Tom tense, and the hand on your arm gripped you harder. 

“As we said before Steven, we don’t think it’s appropriate to make out like teenagers at a work event. Plus, the best relationships are the ones where you’re each others’ best friends, right?” The others at the table nodded, and you stood up, making Tom frown up at you. “I’ll be right back, just need to use the loo.” The table nodded, and began another conversation, and you looked right at Tom, who was still looking a bit worried. 

He was right, you both needed to do something to shut Steven up once and for once. You took a deep breath in, and leaned down, putting a hand on his shoulder, and kissed him. You felt him jump slightly at your touch, but then you felt his lips soften, and kiss you back, his breath hitting your face as he exhaled out of his nose. 

You pulled away just as quickly as you had started it, and swallowed, trying to ignore the body-wide tingle you suddenly felt, and scarpered off to the toilet. 

Once you reached it, you leaned on the sink, breathing heavily. 

You kissed Tom. 

It was weird. 

Then it wasn’t. 

You looked up in the mirror at yourself. Your cheeks were flushed and hot, your pupils bigger than you’re used to seeing, and something about your reflection seemed alien. 

It was the drinks, it had to be. You turned the cold water on, scooping some up in your hand and bringing it to your mouth to gulp it down. You let the excess drop back into the sink, and wiped your damp hand across your forehead to cool you down, feeling your skin prickle at the sudden juxtaposition of temperature. 

Whatever this reaction was, you did your one kiss, and that was that. It was also almost midnight, which meant you had grounds to leave and not face Tom for a good few days. Except…

You forgot that you weren’t in town. You were in Redhill. You had a room booked. With Tom. 

You stood up, shaking your hands and straightening your spine. No matter, you thought. You and Tom had been friends for years. A kiss was part of the deal. Nothing was going to change. 

You strided towards the door, before remembering you actually needed to pee. 

Once that was taken care off, you left the toilets and headed back towards the patio. Even through the patio doors, you could see the table you had just left, and you watched Tom catch your eye and sit up in his seat. You kept your head high, as if nothing was different, wrenched the door open and smiled as you returned to your seat. Tom watched you sit down, grab your drink and take a sizeable sip. You turned to face him. 

“Did I miss anything interesting?” You asked innocently. You watched what seemed like a million different emotions flick across his face. Then he leaned in, closer to your ear. 

“He hasn’t mentioned you since you left. I think it worked.” You quickly glance at Steven, who does in fact look defeated, and was actually talking to Lindsay. You nodded, smiling. There, job done. Now you could  
stop thinking about the kiss.

“What are you two whispering about?” Elspeth cooed, making both you and Tom snap your heads up to her. 

“I don’t think it’s something you want to hear…” You said, trying to distract Elspeth, but her eyes only lit up further. 

“I WANNA KNOW I WANNA-“

“I was just telling Luka,” Tom chimed in. “That she looked gorgeous in this dress, but I’d much prefer it if she wasn’t wearing anything.” You felt your heart drop as you looked at Tom, who just smiled at you. Elspeth squealed, then swatted Jonny. 

“Why don’t you ever tell me stuff like that!” She argued, and poor Jonny just looked bewildered. You addressed Tom.

“Tom I don’t think you should have –“ You started saying, but stopped when Tom’s hand slid around your neck. 

“You remember when I picked you up? I almost didn’t let you leave.” You sat, stunned. What the hell was he saying this for? “You always look amazing to me, but this dress is just…something I’d rather rip off you.” He growled the words as his other arm slid around your waist and he pulled you closer to him, as close as your chairs would allow. 

“I think that’s our cue to leave.” Lindsay said as she stood, and you looked over at her just to see her smiling at you. “Enjoy, and remember, the doors are glass.” She winked as she tapped Steven on the shoulder and beckoned him to follow her. Steven looked between you and Tom, whose hand was now trailing down your leg, and seemed to reluctantly follow his date. Elspeth smacked a kiss on the top of your head then dragged Jonny off. 

And suddenly, you and Tom were alone. 

You smacked his chest. 

“You can stop now.” Tom just grabbed your hand and held it. 

“Why did you kiss me?” You blinked at him. 

“We…we said it?” He raised an eyebrow. 

“Is that all?” You swallowed. “It worked. But I think my tactics worked a bit faster.” He pulled your hand to his shoulder, then wrapped both his arms around your waist and pulled you onto his lap. You squealed at the movement, and rushed to cross your legs as you settled – you were wearing a dress after all. 

“Tom.” He hummed. “What are you doing?” He looked up at you, and his eyes looked…different. He didn’t answer you straight away. 

“Is he still looking?” You frowned, not sure what he meant at first, then you clicked. You looked around the deck, and through the patio doors, and yep – despite talking to Lindsay, you could spot Steven making quick glances at you. You huffed and looked back at Tom, nodding. 

“Yep. Not as much, but…yeah.” 

“Don’t freak out.”

“Freak out at…Tom what are you going to do?” You felt nervous, and your body tensed as his hand slid around your neck. Your eyebrows twitched, wanting to frown, but it never came. Tom’s hand pulled on your neck as he leaned up to you.

“I’m testing something.” Tom whispered, his breath hitting your lips. You opened your mouth, ready to ask what he meant, when he pressed his mouth to yours. You almost jumped at his touch, but his hand tightened around your neck, and he kissed you harder, keeping you locked against him. His other hand wrapped tighter around your waist as the kiss deepened, and one of your hands went to his forearm, whether it was to push him away or pull him closer, you weren’t sure. The kiss was amazing, you felt your lips sizzling as his moved over them. Your fingers were tingling, your stomach knotted itself as your breath got shallower.  
Either a second or an eternity later, your lips went cold as he pulled his mouth away from you, his forehead resting on yours. Your ears felt deafened as your blood pumped loudly through them, and you panted before looking at him, his eyes still closed. 

“Luka...” He whispered, his eyelids fluttering open. He finally looked at you, and you saw his pupils dilated, his brown iris almost completely gone. Then he coughed, and slowly slid his hands off. “Umm…I was just…”

“Testing?” He looked at you. 

“So we should…get back to the…” Tom was looking at you straight in the eyes, and you knew he was talking about going back to the party, but you couldn’t move. “The party.” He finally said. You nodded. Although you didn’t really want to go back to the party after that. 

“Yeah, right.” You breathed, as he finally took his hands from you, and you both stood up (a bit shakily you noticed) and he ran one hand through his hair. You watched the action, suddenly finding it incredibly…sexy. He turned to walk away. “Or!” You grabbed his arm, stopping him from leaving you. “Or we could just…go to bed.” Tom quirked an eyebrow, and you suddenly felt hot. 

“Y-you want to go to bed?!” His voice squeaked out. 

“I meant…j-just go, and sleep. Not…not together.” You babbled, looking down at your fingers as you fiddled nervously. 

“Oh! Sure, yeah, I’m…not really feeling the party anymore either.” He gestured to the door, and you walked quickly towards it, trying to breathe out some of your anxiety as you walked. Jesus, you thought to yourself, one proper kiss and you were acting like it was your first. It was only with Tom, someone you’d known pretty much your whole life, it didn’t mean anything. 

Except...you were pretty sure that kisses between friends weren’t supposed to make you feel like this. It was like some realisation had slammed into you that Tom was attractive, and charming, and sweet…and you kind of wanted to kiss him again.

As you walked through the patio doors and slipped past the numerous people crowding the room, you felt Tom close behind. His hand was grazing your back every so often, as if he was trying to not touch you, but wanted to stay close. A few of your colleagues waved at you as you passed them, but you were walking with too much purpose for them to stop you for idle chitchat. You were heading straight for the ballroom door, which Tom instinctively held open and let you walk through first.


	4. Someone Was Hopeful

You suddenly found yourself in front of the lift, and pressed the button, noticing your fingers shake slightly. You shook the energy out of them before shoving your hands in your pockets, painfully aware of Tom shifting beside you. 

But you couldn’t think of a single thing to say. You felt riled up and completely blank at the same time. Sure, you’d kissed Tom first, but then that response was just..

Why the hell did a stupid kiss get you this riled up? A stupid kiss with your stupid brother’s best friend?

The lift dinged, and the doors opened, and you were quick to jump in and press the button. You’d already got your room key when you first arrived, so now you just had to get to your floor. With Tom. Then sleep in the same room. 

Why did that idea suddenly seem like such a big deal? 

After the doors closed, and the lift started moving, you and Tom were still stood in absolute silence. Then you felt something touch your elbow.

Tom’s hand. 

“I’m sorry.” He said, looking at you straight in the eyes. You swallowed. 

“Don’t be. It’s fine. It worked. Nothing more.” He nodded, then looked back at the doors.

This was weird. This was ridiculous, it was only a kiss. From your brother’s best friend. A kiss that made your body feel like it was on fire. You rubbed your hands over your face. You were an idiot to invite him tonight. Although he looked so handsome, in that suit, his hands on..

“This is weird.” You heard him say beside you. You laughed awkwardly. 

“Yeah, a little. But it’s fine.”

“How is it fine? We are being weird. I didn’t think… I don’t want…”

“We’ve been friends for years. Then we kissed. Twice. That’s not normal for us, which is why it’s weird.”

“How do we stop being weird?” You looked to him, staring at the floor again. You felt sad. You didn’t want things to be weird between you, but you couldn’t shrug off the feeling that…that the kiss was good. Both of them. But that second kiss was…It was really good. 

“Umm…” You finally said, swirling your tongue around your suddenly dry mouth. “Maybe we should do it again.” You laughed. You heard him choke slightly on his breath.

“W-what?” You turned to face him. 

“It was all…sudden and new and exciting, something we have never done before. Maybe if we do it again it won’t be so…” His eyes flicked down to your lips. 

“You thought it was exciting?” 

“Didn’t you? I thought that’s why you’re being weird now.” He opened his mouth, but stopped whatever words he was about to say, then he looked back up to you.

Then he hit the red button, and the lift ground to a halt, and you stumbled with the movement. 

“Tom! What the hell!” He didn’t say anything, he just looked at you, and walked towards you.

“Tell me your plan again.” He said, seriously and slowly, making your stomach buzz. You cleared your throat. 

“Umm… Well..it would make sense that we are weird because it was spontaneous. We kiss again, then it’ll be boring, we’ll realise there’s nothing more there, and we won’t be weird anymore.” After you spoke, you realised he’d backed you up to the wall of the lift, and he then put his hands on the wall either side of your head. You felt your body growing hot as you realised how close he was to you. 

“Are you suggesting that, to stop being weird, we…do it again?” You nod at his question. Then he laughed. “You want to kiss until you’re bored of me?” He raised his eyebrow. You shrugged. 

“It’s not a bad theory.” You watched him breathing, taking the information in.

“Do you really think you’ll get bored of me?” You swallowed at his question. He was looking straight in your eyes, and you saw his pupils were as wide as when you were at the table downstairs. 

“W-we have to, because if we carry on then what? We sleep together?” The muscle in his jaw twitched, as if he was clenching his teeth. “Sorry, that’s not funny.” You mumbled, suddenly very self conscious.

“No,” He growled. “It’s not funny. Because suddenly, Luka, that’s all I can think about.” Your eyes widened. What the fuck was going on! Your mouth bobbed open, and then Tom pushed himself off the wall, away from you, walked back across the space, and reached his hand out to …

To push the red button again. The lift whirred back into life, and suddenly started moving again. You couldn’t take your eyes off Tom, and neither could he. You jumped when the lift dinged. Your floor.

You ran out of the lift and down the hall, trying to reach your room before Tom could catch up to you. _Why were you running?_ Who knows. All you knew was that your heart was pounding, you were anxious as hell, and you needed to lock yourself in a bathroom very suddenly. 

You skidded when you realised you almost missed your door, and fumbled in your pockets for the room key, shoving it into the stupid mechanical door handle three times before it lit green, and you pushed the door open, running straight to the bathroom and locking the door behind you, sliding onto the floor instantly.

Then he was knocking. 

“Luka! Luka! Come on, I’m sorry, please open the door!” His voice sounded muffled, and your ears thumped with blood and adrenaline. You closed your eyes and breathed deeply.

Yoga breaths, darkness, listen to your body, the tiles are cold, everything is fine. 

Except it wasn’t fine, because Tom just told you that he thought about sleeping with you. And that wasn’t your relationship. Or maybe it was? Now that you’ve kissed, you wanted to do it again, and sure, sex would logically be next, so does that mean you SHOULD sleep together? 

No! 

Yoga breaths, darkness, listen to your body, the tiles are cold, everything is fine. 

The knocks finally subsided and you kept breathing for a few minutes, until your vision stopped making you dizzy. 

Damn anxiety attacks. 

You opened your eyes when your heart wasn’t threatening to break your ribs anymore, and pulled yourself up to stand using the sink. Nice sink, you thought, very posh. Stable. 

You breathed in one more time, then opened the bathroom door slowly. Tom was sitting right in front of the door, and jumped up when he heard it opening. He instantly cupped your face in his hands, his eyes full of regret. 

“I’m so sorry, are you okay? I didn’t mean to –“ He babbled.

“It’s fine. It happens.” 

“No, I shouldn’t have done that, I have never made you had one of those before and –“

“Actually, you have.” His hands and his face dropped. “When I was eleven, and we played hide and seek with Harrison, and I was on, and I couldn’t find you guys cos you hid really well.” He frowned.

“That’s not the same.” You both fell quiet. “I’m sorry.” 

“You said that.” 

“I didn’t think, I –“

“Did you mean it?” You asked. He paused. “Is that what you’re thinking about?”

“Technically you said it, I can’t help my mind went there!”

“But it did go there?”

“Well,” He spluttered. “Yours did first or you wouldn’t have said it!”

“But we won’t! And you know why?” Your voice raised with your question.

“Why?!” 

“Because this weird date thing is finished! WE agreed on one kiss, then you took it too far, and regardless of us being weird, none of that is EVER happening again!” You were full on shouting at this point, and now you were getting hot for a whole different reason.

“_ I_ took it too far?! You were hardly stopping me!”

“WELL I’M STOPPING IT NOW!”

“FINE!” He yelled, stomping into the bathroom and slamming the door shut. You groaned in frustration, running your hands through your hair and stomping further into the room. 

You spun round when you heard the bathroom door open. 

“WHAT NO-” You started to say, cut off when he walked up to you, suddenly grabbed your waist and pulled you towards him, kissing you hard. 

Your heart thumped against your chest at the contact, and you instinctively grabbed his neck as you returned the kiss. You felt his tongue against your bottom lip, then he bit it. You moaned automatically, deepening the kiss and pressing your body closer to his. His hands tightened on your waist as your mouths remained attached, both of your breaths filling the silence of the room. You felt his weight push into you, so you stepped back, and then he was leading you somewhere. Your back hit the wall, and one of his hands left your side, but his mouth stayed firmly on yours.

You felt the same sizzling at you had on the patio, this time running throughout your body to the tips of your toes. His entire body was pressed against yours, and you could feel _certain_ areas of him getting more excited. You kept kissing him, and he kept kissing you back, eagerly and passionately. 

Then he pulled back only enough to leave a gap between your lips of a few millimetres, and you both breathed heavily in the space.

“So…” you whispered. 

“We kissed.” He whispered back, his hand still tight around your waist.

“Again.”

“And…now we stop?” He murmured, his voice low, and inviting. You shook your head enthusiastically, before his hand left the wall and wrapped around your neck, reattaching your mouths in another searing kiss. 

Four times. You’d gone from not thinking twice about Tom to kissing him four times in the space of an hour. And you didn’t want to stop. The hand that was on your waist slid up to the other side of your neck, and you ran your hands over his arms, his shoulders, down his back to his waist. Instinctively, one of your legs lifted, your foot resting on the wall, your bent knee next to his hip. His hand flew down, grabbing your thigh and using it to pull your body closer to him, and you were suddenly able to feel everything he was feeling for you. His mouth went to your neck, wet and hot, his tongue sliding over your skin before he kissed you. You felt breathless, and exhilarated, and you felt a moan vibrate through your throat, but you bit your lip to stop it from escaping. Your efforts failed when he rocked his hips into you, his hardness rubbing on your core, and you moaned loudly into the air. He pulled his lips off your neck and brought his face level to yours as you blushed furiously. 

“I…I’m sorry.” You stammered, watching his blank face as he processed what just happened. Then he broke out into a smile. 

“Never, ever be sorry, that was the most beautiful noise I’ve ever heard.” He kissed you hard before you could respond, and rocked his hips against you again, pulling his mouth away from yours ever so slightly. “Do it again.” He pleaded, rubbing against your core and gripping your skin harshly. “Luka, please.” He buried his face in your neck, occasionally kissing you, but otherwise focusing on his movements. You felt it in your stomach first, the pleasure from his actions building it up as your mouth panted open. You felt insanely hot, this boy pressing you against the wall, moving your bodies together in such a carnal fashion that you should feel ashamed, but all you could think about was how there were too many clothes in the way.

“Tom…” you breathed, not quite a moan though, which made him growl and grind against you harder. “Tom, please, we need…”

“What? Tell me what you need princess.” His words rumbled in his chest, and you almost moaned at the tone of his voice. 

You fumbled for his buttons on his shirt, trying to pop them open as quickly as you could. It seems Tom had other ideas. His hands went to your ass and he lifted you up, your mouths making a loud popping as they separated, and you squealed at the sudden movement. Second time tonight. 

You wrapped your legs around his waist, trying to ignore the muscles you could now feel on your thighs and your stomach, and you looked down at him. He looked _hungry_. You never thought you would use that word to describe someone you were about to sleep with, but nothing else could describe the look in his eyes at that exact moment. 

He turned, holding you up easily, his fingers gripping your ass as he walked, then he just…let go.

And you fell onto the bed. 

You were about to scold him when he climbed over you, pressing his hips into yours first, then his stomach, then his chest, then his lips on your neck. And then you were trapped. Trapped under this excruciatingly, mouth-watering body. 

You yelped when he bit the skin above your shoulder, then realised it was gentle, and moaned when he licked and sucked the same spot straight after.

Tom pushed off you, sitting up on his knees, and you took a second to look at him. His hair was sticking up in weird places, from your fingers, no doubt. His chest and his cheeks had a smattering of a pink flush. His shirt was wrinkled, the top button undone, when that happened you weren’t sure. His trousers seemed…snug, more snug that before. You knew the reason for that. 

He looked hot. Astonishingly, surprisingly, insanely hot.

He ripped his shirt off his body, and you felt your mouth go dry. You’d seen his body before, your whole life, hell, you saw it earlier this week. But something was different about seeing him now; his skin almost shining from what you guessed was sweat, his muscles moving, rippling as he moved his arms forward to climb back over you, his head dipping so that he could kiss your thigh. 

“God Luka, I can’t wait to get you out of this dress.” You suddenly heard him mumble against your leg, one of his hands reaching the edge of your dress and slowly bunching it up, kissing the newly exposed skin. Then he looked up at you, his chin still grazing your thigh. “Is this okay?”

You sit up, grab his chin, and pull his face to yours for another bruising kiss. His hand lets go of your dress and moves to your lower back, pressing, pulling you closer. 

You pull away from the kiss, your hand on his panting chest. 

“Is…is this what you want?” You breathed, not looking up at his eyes. 

“I think so.” You look up at him. He looks worried. His hands have frozen in their place on your body. “Is it what you want?” You lick your lips, and his eyes follow your tongue. 

“I don’t want us to regret it.” You whisper. 

“Oh.” He said as his hands fell from your body, and you put a hand behind you to stop yourself falling. “Is that…is that because I’m your brother’s best friend?” You didn’t reply to his question. “I shouldn’t have done this. We shouldn’t have done this.” He said, running his hands through his hair, then shuffling backwards until he stood up off the bed, and started pacing.

“Just…” You shuffled forward, onto your knees. “I’ve never thought about you this way before.” 

“Me either.” He breathed. He turned back to look at you. Something he shouldn’t have done. Looking at you, your hair messed up, your chest heaving as you breathed heavily, your lips tinged pink and full from your kissing, your dress scrunched up from his touch. He almost took a step towards you, but he managed to stop himself. You noticed this.

“I want to make sure this isn’t a mistake.” You said, despite the fact you were reaching behind you to find the zipper of your dress. 

“Because I’m your brother’s best friend.” You nod slowly, then the only sound you could hear was your breathing, and the slow tic tic of the zipper undoing. 

You were the one that stopped, the one that asked to be sure, and you were the one now taking the next step. Of course you were hesitant; you had known Tom for 14 years, and only found attractive in the last 74 minutes. But you also knew that you weren’t imagining this. It was like the kiss opened a floodgate of emotions that neither of you had ever been aware of; Tom was hot, he thought you were hot, your kisses were setting your body on fire, and all you wanted was to get him naked and climb on top of him. And if his eyes were anything to go by, he was on a similar wavelength, just with a bit more rationality. 

“Luka, we shouldn’t have done this.” He said, although he took a slow step closer. You don’t know what was getting into you. All you knew was that you didn’t want this to stop.

“Then leave.” You said, both your hands reaching for the back of your now unzipped dress. His eyes widened and he moved towards you, a hand reaching for yours to stop you. But you were too quick. The zip was already down and then your dress was falling to the bed. You shifted your knees, pulling the dress out from under you, and chucked it onto the floor. He watched it crumple to a heap, then he looked down at you, kneeling in front of him, biting your bottom lip, wearing nothing but underwear.

“Luka…” He whispered. You reached your hands forward to grab his belt buckle, pulling him effortlessly closer, and started undoing it slowly, so that he could stop you if he really wanted to. When he didn’t, you carried on until it was completely undone, your fingers grazing his stomach just above. You watched goosebumps shower his skin suddenly, and you hoped it was because of your touch. 

He stared at you, just breathing, as you trailed your fingers down to the button on his trousers. Then he grabbed your wrist. 

“Are you sure?” he asked, his voice low as he studied you. You didn’t say anything, you just stared at him in his eyes and undid the button, pausing when it popped open. 

“Do you not want to?” You said, your finger running along the top of his boxer line. 

“You’re Harrison’s sister.”

“So?” 

“We shouldn’t…I shouldn’t want…” You slipped your hand into his boxers, biting your lip when you felt how hard he was. And how big. He groaned and immediately bent down and kissed you, his hand grabbing your neck. 

“Seems like you really want.” You murmured into his mouth, your fingers gripping him tight.

“You’re going to kill me.” He moaned into your mouth. 

You crawled backwards on the bed, your mouths still moving over each others’, him moving over you. Once you reached the pillows, you stopped and reached around his neck again. Tom’s hands slid up your waist and gripped you, tight. 

It was like something suddenly switched inside him. His kisses were passionate, but harsh and fervent, making you hot and tingly. He wiggled his jeans off and you heard the thump of them hitting the floor behind him. Then he was grabbing your hips, your waist, any skin he could, pulling your body against his. You immediately felt him against you, and you rocked your hips up into it. His kiss was deep, his tongue feeling like liquid heaven as it ran over yours. Your hands were somewhere on his neck or his shoulders, you weren’t completely sure, your brain currently resembling mush, and one of his hands went down to your hips, toying with the edge of your underwear. As he moved closer to your centre, he pulled away from your lips. 

“Tell me to stop.” He whispered against your mouth. His finger ran up and down your core, faltering slightly. “You’re so fucking wet Luka…”

“Okay, stop.” He froze, looking up at you. You pulled his ear down to your mouth. “Stop teasing and just fuck me already.” He growled at you, grabbing the edge of your underwear and pulling them off completely. You pushed his shoulders, rolling him over onto his back and climbing on his waist. 

You rocked yourself into him, making him sit up suddenly and kiss you. Your hand reached between you, sliding his underwear down revealing his cock. You wrapped your hands around him, pumping him a couple of times, his kiss deepening. Then you lifted yourself up, and angled him to you. 

“You ready?” You whispered, pulling back from his mouth slightly. He nodded, then stopped himself. 

“Wait, no!” He almost yelled, you moved your hips back away from him.

“What?”

“I’m not wearing anything.”

“Well, that’s kind of the point?” He looked at you as if to say ‘really’, then you clicked. “Right, uhh…” You looked around, and were at a loss. You didn’t bring anything. “I don’t…I didn’t…”

“In my wallet.” He muttered, making you raise an eyebrow. 

“Someone was hopeful.” You said, making him laugh.

“Not really, I just always have one in there.”

You climbed off Tom, unwillingly and rooted through your dispersed clothing until you found his wallet – sure enough, a lone packet. With a smile, you turned back round to him and threw it to him. 

He ripped the packet open, rolled the condom on and you climbed back into your position, your arms wrapping around his neck. 

“Ready?” He asked. You nodded. “Sure?” He smiled slightly, grabbing your waist and pulling you closer, and you suddenly felt him rub against your core. 

“Are you?” You asked, but you just didn’t give him time to respond, instead just sinking yourself onto him, exhaling loudly at the feel of him sliding effortlessly into you, filling you up perfectly. His mouth parted as he watched you, and when he bottomed out, you both just stared at each other. 

Wasn’t this supposed to be weird? This was a guy you grew up with, your brother’s best friend, and here you were, his cock inside you, and it felt like the most normal thing in the world, like you two should have been doing this the whole time. 

You made the first move, rolling your hips, his cock moving inside, dragging along your walls and pushing back in with your movement. It felt amazing, like all your veins were filling up with electricity and pumping it all around your body.

You watched him bite his lip as you moved. One of his hands slid down your bare waist, round to your ass, and he gripped you harshly, making you jerk forward and growl. It was sudden, but it wasn’t unwelcome. He leant up and kissed your neck, sloppily, as you both moved together, building up a rhythm. His hips snapping up to yours as you rocked with his movements, his cock thrusting into you and making you moan loudly. He bit your neck, then you felt yourself being flung on to your back. Tom climbed over you, pushing straight back inside you.

“Fuck!” You cried as he started harshly pounding into you. One of his hands was on the bed by your head, the other gripping your thigh, slamming your body onto his as he thrust up into you. You gripped his waist and his neck, not having the energy for anything else other than to be used by him. 

You wanted this since you kissed him. It confused you, but you knew he wanted it to. And so what? You could use each other, get these feelings out, and that would be that. 

He kissed you, as best as he could with how quick your bodies were moving, and you moaned at the extra contact. That made him speed up.

His head fell to your neck, both of you getting noisier, sloppier, faster. The burning ball inside your body was growing bigger and bigger as you neared your climax. You met your end when his hand moved from your hip to your clit, pressing down on your nerves and circling his fingers with the same ferocity as he was slamming into you. You squeezed your eyes shut as the feeling overtook your body, running through your limbs like a wildfire, your muscles tensing and Tom’s name falling from your lips over and over until he finally slowed down. 

With a final, exhausted thrust, Tom’s arm on the bed gave way, and he collapsed on top of you. For a few seconds, you both just breathed heavily in the afterglow, your body thumping as the blood rushed through you. You finally started to register your other senses again, the stickiness of your skin and you felt your muscles pulsing around Tom. He slowly pulled out, a few whimpers and groans accompanying the undesirable movement, and he rolled off you onto his back, sighing deeply. 

“That was…” He mumbled, staring at the ceiling. “That was great.” You looked over at him, to him starting to smile. You laughed slightly. 

“Sure was.” You shivered a little. “M’cold though.” You moved to get into bed, pulling the duvet up around your body, you smiled when he followed you under after chucking out the condom. He wrapped his arm around you and pulled your bodies together, nuzzling his nose into your neck before kissing the skin after. 

“You feel good.” He whispered into your ear as you both settled alongside each other, your back pressing against his front, both of you still spectacularly naked, still feeling fuzzy and tingly.

“Charmer.” 

“There’s no need, I’ve already gotten you into bed.” You could hear the smile in his voice and felt your mouth stretch into one as well. “Although…” One word was apparently all it took to make you feel as though your good mood was about to be ruined. 

“Although what?” You heard him breath in before responding to your question.

“Although…that’s it isn’t it?” 

Silence followed, and you shuffled so that you could turn over to face him. He was frowning, looking somewhere around your shoulders instead of your eyes. You put your hand on his cheek, your thumb moving slowly across his skin. He didn’t look up at you, but opened his mouth to continue speaking. 

“This was a one time, getting it out of our system thing. So…once we get out of this bed, it’s all over.” Once he finished speaking, he finally looked up at you. You smiled, somewhat despondently as a response. 

“Then let’s not get out of the bed just yet.” You said, before pulling his face towards you for a kiss.


	5. Gerard The Cuddly Unicorn

The next morning (or afternoon), you slowly regain consciousness, feeling your body tingling as the blood rushed back through your extremities. You breathe in, stretching your toes and your arms, fluttering your eyes open, then pausing as your arm hits a solid lump next to you. Oh yeah, Tom. You smile a little, looking at his back as he continues to sleep on his stomach, and you remember last night. 

Who’d have thought you’d be waking up to your brother’s best friend in your bed, after you spent hours falling asleep, waking up, hands wandering, lips trailing over each other’s skin?

Your head was only slightly pounding, partly thanks to the fact that you started alternating to water before you came up to the room, and probably partly due to the fact you’d sweated out a load of the alcohol during your…_activities_. 

But you definitely needed a shower. You slipped out from under the duvet, still naked it seems, checking over your shower to check that, yup, he’s still asleep, and tiptoed to the bathroom. Once the door was safely shut, you let out a long breath, leaning on the sink for a moment. This was crazy. Not even 24 hours ago, you regarded Tom as a purely platonic, childhood friend that had just been in your life for-fucking-ever. You looked in the mirror, immediately noticing the marks on your skin from his mouth. Well, you couldn’t think of Tom like your brother anymore, that’s for damn sure. You caught yourself smiling, and you realised that you kept getting ripples of desire whenever you thought about him, and you being naked, and him being naked, and-

Nope, you were here to shower. You needed a shower. You turn it on, and stick your hand in, waiting for it to get hot. Tom would still be in bed after your shower. You step in, letting the water rush over your head and down your body. You hoped Tom would stay after he woke up, so you could have a chat. You both were very aware that this was a one and done deal, you were pretending to be together, feelings were flying about, you got it out of your system (two or three times over the night), and that was that. You just needed to check he was on the same page as you in not telling your brother.

Your brother was fiercely loyal, and protective, and he had always made it clear to _all_ of his friends that you were not to be touched, and if any of them wanted to so much as ask you out, they had to have that talk with Harry first. Although you’re pretty sure that when your brother came up with these ‘unspoken’ rules, he didn’t imagine that his lifelong best friend would be the subject matter there. 

Now you were just praying that you and Tom could still be friends after this. You didn’t want to have a conversation with Harrison about why you were suddenly so weird with each other. You didn’t want to have any type of conversation with Harrison – he didn’t even know that Tom was here as your date. You didn’t think you could keep a straight face if you had to tell Harrison that Tom pretended to be your boyfriend for a whole night and nothing happened between you two. If this is going to stay as what you agreed, that it was just a one time thing, then you, hopefully, wouldn’t have to have that conversation at all. As long as you and Tom could talk about the fact that this was done, finished, and things can go back to normal. 

You finished washing, squeezed the water out of your hair, turned the shower off, and grabbed a fluffy, hotel towel, wrapping it around you as you stepped out. Everything was still silent, which meant that Tom was probably still asleep. Good. You could get ready and figure out how you were going to approach this situation. Carefully pushing on the door handle, you slowly opened the door and creeped out, making it about two steps before you freeze. 

“Hey.” A voice rings out in the semi dark room. 

“Tom.” You reply, straightening from your expert creeping stance and feeling the wall for the light switch, before turning to face him. He was lying in bed, still covered by the duvet, rest on one hand that was behind his head, his other hand holding his phone. He smiled at you, and threw his phone to the side. 

“Almost thought you bailed, til I heard the shower going.” You crossed the room to your bag, and start rifling for your clothes. 

“I didn’t think I needed to bail.” You said honestly, standing up once you got all your clothes in hand, moving to sit on the edge of the bed to start putting them on. There was movement, felt the mattress bounce beneath you, then you felt his lips touch your shoulder softly, and your towel shifting around your body. 

“Tom,” You muttered. “What are you doing?” His lips touched the skin at the base of your neck, and you felt your towel being tugged, then the material slacked. 

“Hmm…” His voice rumbled through your body. Another kiss landed on your neck. “We are still in bed.”

“Is that right?” You laughed a little. 

“Well…on it, we’re on the bed. And if I remember rightly…” His lips kissed up to your ear, and your towel fell away from your body. “We only need to stop once we leave the bed.”

“I left the bed.” You pointed out, but his arms just wrapped around your waist.

“And yet, you’re back.” You laughed again, and twisted your neck to look at him. He smiled innocently at you, his hair still ruffled from sleep, and he bumped his nose against yours. 

“So your logic is what, every time we’re in a bed we have sex?” You ask, but his smile just got bigger and he leaned in for a kiss. You back away. 

“Something wrong with that idea?” He queried, his hands slowly sliding off your waist. 

“Well…I thought we said this was just a last night thing?” He tilted his head at you and you could see his jaw moving, as if he was playing with his tongue. It reminded you of when you were trying not to laugh at something, and you’d press your tongue against the roof of your mouth to stop it slipping through. But Tom wouldn’t be laughing at that, would he?

You watched him, his eyes flickering between your eyes, your lips, and your naked chest, as he clearly thought hard about your question. You decided to leave your question unanswered in the air, and leant forward to put your feet through your underwear. 

“Technically…” He started, making you laugh as you wiggled your underwear on and started putting your bra on. “We are still on our date, up until we leave this room.” You turn to look at him, exasperated. He moved closer, his hand sliding round your neck. “Which means, that you putting that underwear on, was pointless.” His sentence dropped to whisper towards the end, and he leaned in to place a soft kiss on your lips, which you accepted, briefly, before putting some space between you. 

“Tom, it wasn’t even a real date.” You said, softly, as though it would cushion the blow of what you were saying. But Tom knew it wasn’t a real date, and that didn’t change just because you slept together.

Although, after saying that, and seeing how Tom’s body seemed to stiffen, and recoil from you, you weren’t so sure that he was on the same wavelength as you anymore. 

“I thought you enjoyed it.” His voice was small, sad, _defeated_. 

“I-I did, we did, but we also were pretending in the lead up to it, got it out of our system, and now it’s done. You helped me out loads.” 

“Is that what we’re calling it now?” Tom chuckled, although there was no genuine humor in his voice. 

“Well yeah, what else are we supposed to call it? We can’t exactly start dating.”

“Why not?” Your eyes widened at his question. He didn’t _seriously_ think you two could … did he? He shook his head. “While you were in the shower, I did some thinking-”

“Dangerous.”

“Funny. I was thinking, this was good.” 

You were quiet. This wasn’t at all what you had planned out in the shower. What you had expected was something along the lines of ‘we good?’ ‘Yeah course, see ya’. But this?

“So …” He continued talking, seeing that you weren’t about to offer a rebuttal anytime soon. “Why should we stop doing something this good?” He said, smiling a little, a gleam in his eye like he had solved the mystery of the universe. And you had to admit, he did have a small point. But, his point was overshadowed by the fact that you absolutely could not start dating your brother’s best friend, and the fact that the speed at which you fell into bed with him after knowing him for so long frankly frightened you. You swivelled round to face him.

“Tom, how would we explain it to Harrison?” You queried, making his smile falter. You reached your hand up to his cheek, your thumb stroking his cheek. “We’ve been friends for years, Harrison and you have been friends for longer, there is no way he’d be okay with us being a thing. He trusts you to protect me as well as he would.”

You were both silent for a few seconds. You could tell that the cogs were turning in his head. You felt a little bit sad at the fact that you had to say it out loud, so bluntly, but Harrison wouldn’t forgive either of you if he found out after all these years of friendship, you went and slept together. He would think it’d been going on for ages, that you or Tom had been harbouring these feelings for a while, and that he wasn’t informed because of a lack of trust. That was your relationship, anything that was on your mind got spoken about. Tom looked over your features, his fingers trailing over your skin delicately, then he sighed. 

“Why has he made you so untouchable?” Tom whispered. 

“You know why.” 

“Right,” Tom nodded. “I remember.” 

When Tom and Harry were eighteen, prime time for teenagers thinking they were grown ups, they had a friend, Kevin, who got into a relationship. A bad one. With a person who showed all the warning signs – stopping him from hanging out with Tom and Harry, going through his phone, making arguments out of little things. It quickly spiralled until one day, Harrison heard that his friend didn’t make it out of the last argument. That same day, your brother sat you down and told you everything, told you to always talk to him even if it seems unimportant, and simultaneously vowed to protect you from ever being in that situation. Hence why, from then on, Harrison met every single person you ever said you were interested in, and told his friends not to even bother looking at you.

“Harry will only be mad if he finds out.” Tom suddenly spoke. You shook your head when he started to smile.

“No, absolutely not. He’d be mad if he found out about this, He’d downright _kill_ you if we carried on behind his back.” He tilted his head while you protested, but just smiled. You felt his hand sliding round your waist again. 

“Tell me to stop, and I will.” He tugged, pulling you suddenly into his lap. 

“Tom, stop.” You said, trying to push against his shoulders, but his death arm grip around your waist threw you off balance, and before you knew it, you were both falling back onto the bed, and you thumped on top of Tom with a loud ‘oof’ escaping your mouth.

“No, don’t say stop because of Harrison. I want you to tell me to stop because _you_ don’t want to do this anymore.” He looked you straight in the eyes as he said it, almost daring you to say it, and then his hands went down to the back of your knees, gripping them tight, and he rolled you both over, immediately starting to kiss along your chest. “If you don’t say it, then I sure as hell aren’t stopping until we leave this room.” He smiled as he kissed your skin, but you just looked up at the ceiling, biting your lip, trying to sort out the mess in your head. 

You could feel his hands sliding along the edge of your underwear. His lips were drawing invisible lines over your neck, your breasts, your stomach, his fingertips making your skin fizzle as they gently moved the material away from you. A deep pull vibrating from low in your stomach told you that you definitely wanted this, and your scrambled brain couldn’t provide you with a counter argument. This was good, he made you feel good, but as you screwed your eyes shut trying to succumb to the moment of his tongue licking below your belly button, the horrible vision of Harrison’s reaction to this tore through your mind. 

You sat up and pushed Tom away so quickly that he fell off the bed. Loudly. 

“What the fuck?!” He yelled, trying to untangle the sheets from his feet so he could stand up.

You merely righted your underwear, slipped off the bed on grabbed your clothes, putting them on a lot quicker this time. 

“Luka what was that?” Tom repeated, as you breathed purposefully, trying to actively slow the harsh thumping of your heart. You buttoned your jeans.

“Me saying stop.” You said bluntly, not looking him in the eyes as you pulled your T-shirt over your head. You heard muffled footsteps as you worked your top on, and when your limbs were through, Tom had appeared in front of you.

“Really?” You ignored him, making sure your top was on right. “Luka?” You gave him nothing, stepping around him to get to the rest of your things, but he grabbed your elbow and spun you back round to him. “Are you really saying stop?” His hand went to your chin, tilting your head up so you had to look at him. 

He looked genuinely upset, and you felt a pang of empathy, a willingness to take it back, give him what he wanted. 

But you loved your brother too much to go behind his back. Blinking a few times in a feeble attempt to try and quash your emotions, you summoned the courage to do what was right.

“I’m saying stop. I’ve already said stop.”

“Yeah, but ...come on Luka, we can deal with your brother-“

“I said no Tom!” It surprised you to hear that your response came out as more of a shout, but you suddenly couldn’t stop yourself. “It was a one time thing, it’s done, I don’t want to talk about it or think about it again!”

His hand fell from your elbow. His face hardened. You regretted what you said. 

“Fine.” A simple word, capable of destroying happiness in a single syllable. You watched him stalk away from you, angrily ripping his clothes from the bag and pulling them on, huffing as he did. 

“Tom, you know it’s better this way.” You tried to reason, but he just grunted in response. “You have never been able to keep a secret from Harry.”

“You’d be worth keeping.” He mumbled, and for a split second, you were ready to take it all back. 

“I can’t do that to him.” Tom nodded, and continued getting dressed. The awkward silence stretching between you was becoming more and more unbearable, and you wanted it fixed immediately. “Are we good?” You asked, fully aware of the ludicrous hypocrisy of your question, but you had to know that Harrison won’t see you two being any different.

“Yeah, fine.” He winced out a smile. He wasn’t happy. Hell, you weren’t happy, but it needed to be done. Tom would realise that after the initial sting wore off. No one in their right mind would be happy if they’d been pushed off the bed mid-foreplay. 

You watched, somewhat helplessly as he got himself dressed, slowly making your way to your socks. Neither of you said a word as you finished putting your clothes on, and you grabbed your phone to check the train times. You let Tom know that you needed to head out soon, not receiving much in the way of a response, and you made your way out of the room. Tom left first, and you looked back at the bed briefly, your stomach rippling as you let yourself remember for just a minute, before closing the door to the room, and hopefully, on your little adventure. 

The train ride back was painful, to say the least. You sat next to each other, but you might as well be on opposite ends of the Earth. As soon as you (eventually) got to your building, Tom finally piped up. 

“I’ll see you around, I guess?” His voice cracked, probably from the lack of use over the day, and you jerked your head in an awkward nod, and then he simply turned and walked down the street to his and Harrison’s place. 

You let out a loud exhale, as if you had been holding in your breath the whole way, and suddenly felt the urge to cry. You made your way up your steps, your chest tightening as you felt the all too familiar sensation of anxiety bubbling its way through your body. Slightly desperate fumbling through your bag occurred, your fingers taking far too long to loop around your keys, and you kept breathing against the threatening panic attack until you were safely behind your door and leant against it, bags finally slipping out of your hands and off your arms. 

“Fuck me.” You exhaled, closing your eyes and blindly reaching for your phone in your pocket. The tightness in your chest was starting to soften as you clicked on your best friend’s number. 

“Luka! How was the party?” Her beautiful voice rang through the phone into your ear like a valium. You instantly felt better.

“Silver, need you.”

“Yours or somewhere outside?”

“Mine.”

“Gimme 10 minutes. Put the kettle on.” 

Your best friend was your best friend for this exact reason. Well, for a hundred reasons, but this was the first one that cemented you and Silver as each other’s Ride or Die soulmates. You both had anxiety, and very early on, during your college years, you both supported each other through spiralling thoughts, anxiety and panic attacks, and self-deprecating behaviours. Which is why, whenever either of you called and said you needed the other, you went over, immediately, if you could. If you couldn’t, you stayed on the phone, or made a strategy to tide you over until you could meet up. You loved Silver, sometimes more than your brother, but you’d never tell him that. 

As promised, Silver turned up ten minutes later, walked straight through your front door (she had her own key, obviously), and made you both a cup of tea when she saw you sitting on your kitchen counter, hugging your knees. She coaxed you off the counter, into your living room and onto the sofa. Then she got your supplies which consisted of sweets that she had brought over, tea, Gerard your cuddly unicorn, blanket, and stuffed both your phones behind a cushion on the chair.

These ‘sessions’ always started with the ‘therapist’ talking first while the ‘therapee’ drank the tea. You both found this super helpful, the tea grounding you as the heat spread through your stomach, the attention being on the other so the one freaking out could calm down enough to collect their thoughts. 

You put your tea on the coffee table, and Silver finished her sentence, knowing you were ready to talk. 

You fiddled with Gerard’s mane, and took a breath in. Silver took a sip of her tea, patiently waiting for you to speak.

“I slept with Tom.” 

You flinched as hot tea sprayed over your face and you yelled. Wiping it out of your eyes, you saw Silver staring at you, remnants of her drink dripping from her open mouth. 

“You...you....”

“Slept with Tom, yeah.” You looked down at your fingers, weaving through the coarse, multi-coloured tufts on Gerard. 

“Wow.” 

“Now we aren’t speaking.”

“I...okay.” Silver put her tea down and shifted into a straighter position. “I need it from the top.”

So you told her. You told her everything you remembered, from his proposition, to the party, Steven (who she obviously already knew about), how Tom flirted with you and you kissed (she squealed at that part), the lift ride, what happened when you got to the room, and then this morning. Silver listened to every detail, asking questions minimally, her eyes wide, a smile growing on her face up until you spoke about the morning conversation. She took your hand, her eyebrows frowning sadly.

“How do you feel?” She asked, when you finally took a breath. 

“I don’t know. I did the right thing.” 

“In..sleeping with him?” The corner of her mouth twitched as you could tell she was fighting a smile. You smacked her hand, making her laugh.

“In telling him it can’t happen again.” You corrected. 

“Right, _obviously_.” She winked at you. “Well...do you feel like it was the right thing?” 

“I...” You sighed.

“Sweetie. It’s okay not to know. It’s not like you’ve thought about him this way before. You know _I_ have, though, briefly. He is very attractive.”

“I don’t know if that helps.” You laugh, reaching for your tea. “It was great, amazing, but I don’t know if it was because of the whole night, or if I’ve been harbouring these feelings unconsciously all this time. And this morning I just kept thinking of Harrison and how he would react if he found out. This is the sort of thing all the movies show, the sister and the best friend, and the guy is always outraged, and then with Kevin in college...” Silver nodded. “I mean, do you remember how Harry reacted when he found out I was dating Miley? He actually sat in on our next date and quizzed her about her morals and intentions. He just...if he knew me and Tom had done this, he would actually lose it.”

“I agree, but, it’s not like you planned this. You know all that Harrison wants is you safe, and happy. Did it make you happy?” You nod, somewhat sheepishly, then immediately shook yourself out of it. It made you happy, you weren’t going to feel ashamed of that. “And if you were to get with any of your brother’s friends, you know full well Harrison would rather it was Tom than anyone else.”

You processed that, realising that she might be right. Harry had a lot of friends, but Tom was the only one you regularly saw, and regularly hung out with. Hell, Harry left you two alone on multiple occasions because he knew you were safe with him. That perception would change if Harrison found out about last night though..

“I just...since Kevin died, Harrison made me promise to tell him everything. He was more mad that he _found out_ about Miley than he was about me dating her. It’s going to ruin his friendship with Tom if he finds out we were sleeping together behind his back. If I stop it now, we can chalk it up to a drunk mistake and never mention it again.”

“So...you’re not even gonna tell Harry that? That it was a one time, alcohol fuelled mistake?”

“I...I haven’t decided.” You answered honestly, looking down at the tea in your hands, momentarily getting distracted by the thin wisps of steam trailing up into the air. “I’d have to decide that with Tom I guess.”

“I’m not going to lie to you, Luka,” Silver said in a tone that suggested this was going to be a brutally honest round up of their discussion. “I think that if you enjoyed it, and like Tom, keep going. Tom sounded pretty pissed that you stopped it. If and when Harrison finds out, and he _will_ find out, yeah he’ll be mad, but if Tom made, or is making you happy, then your brother has no reason to stop you.” She ended her mini-monologue with a sip of her tea, and you just nodded. 

She was right. She was absolutely right. Either way you would have to tell your brother, a thought that filled your stomach with dread, but you just had to decide whether to tell him that you and Tom had a fling, or are a thing. Tom was a good guy, Harry wouldn’t have kept him around for so long if he was a dickhead, and Harry knew everything about him, so no quiz necessary. 

And it did make you happy. The whole night made you feel good, and you and Tom get on so easily...and clearly get on _each other_ quite easily...now you just had to figure out if this was something you wanted to start with him, or whether you wanted to leave it at last night. Unfortunately, Silver couldn’t help you figure that out, as much as you wished she could, but your best friend had already done her duty, in helping you unpack the tidal wave of emotion caused by your few <strike>moments</strike> **hours** of weakness.

Now you had a plan. Figure out what you wanted from Tom, talk to Tom, tell Harrison the outcome, live happily ever after. 

Easy, right?


	6. Party City Girl

With Silver’s support, a few more conversations over the next few hours, and a couple of days of much needed good night’s sleep, you arrived at a conclusion in your mind. A conclusion that you felt relatively okay with, that freaked you out, but also excited you a little bit.

You tried to spend as long as possible going over and over your thought. Weighing up the good and the bad, the pros and the cons, but you always ended up back at the same thought. 

You had realised that you wanted to see Tom again. You wanted to kiss him again. You wanted a lot more from him. 

Everytime you thought about his hands on you, or his mouth on yours, you felt ripples through your body, making you warm, making you feel fuzzy and tingly, sending a millions thoughts through your head about what else you wanted him to do to you. 

Yes, you were very aware that _you_ had been the one to stop things on Sunday morning, but back then, you had thought that was the right thing to do. Aside from your parents, Harrison was **the** most important person in your life, and you didn’t want to betray him, or hurt him. But, as Silver had so rightly pointed out, as long you told Harrison sooner than later, he’d get over it.

Now, you just had to talk about it with Tom. Tom, who you had not spoken to since he left you at your house. 

You had debated texting him, or calling him, invite him over and just hash it out, but you chickened out every time. It was now the longest you’d gone without talking to him directly, and in your group chat, you only replied to Harrison. 

It comes round to Thursday, and you still feel confident in your decision. It’s like whenever you wanted to buy something, you always took a picture of it, and waited a few days. If you forgot about it, you never wanted it. If you kept thinking about it, you bought it. 

And you hadn’t stopped thinking about Tom. 

Thursday evening, Harrison messages the group chat that a few of the guys were heading over. You typed out a quick reply saying you were grabbing the pizza and would be there asap. Tom was silent. I mean, he lived with your brother, he probably knew this. One of them often messaged just to tell you to get your butt over. 

You debated changing your clothes, but you also needed a shower. A shower would take too long if you had it now, and if you sat down on your bed undressed you wouldn’t leave, and you would go straight to sleep. So, you made the decision to shower at Harry’s. _Maybe Tom would join you..._  
You grabbed some pizzas out your freezer, grabbed your bag and keys, and head out the door. It takes 4 minutes to walk from your flat to your brothers, and you were soon waltzing into the property that you may as well call your own.

“The oven better be on!” You yelled as you pulled your key out the lock and shut the door behind you. You heard a set of footsteps, then your brother appears at the end of the hallway. 

“Of course, I am no rookie.” Harrison said, smiling as you walked up and hugged him. “Tom with you?” He asked, looking over your shoulder. 

“Umm...why would Tom be with me, he lives here?” You frowned. 

“Huh. He went out earlier. I called him to tell him when to be back by and heard a girl laugh, assumed it was you.” He explained, while you expertly hid the fact that it felt as though your stomach had stabbed it’s way through your body and dropped out your ass. 

Tom? Out with a girl? He wouldn’t...would he? 

“Probably background noise.” You commented, hoping you were true. You’d finally decided what you wanted, were ready to tell him, you _willed_ for Tom to not already be moving on. Harry nodded as you made your way to the kitchen, and he took the pizzas and shoved them in, while you went through your phone. 

You checked Tom’s Whatsapp – last active an hour ago. Nothing on instagram, or twitter. Wherever he was, he was busy doing it. But that wasn’t helpful. You texted Silver. She already knew you wanted to start things up with Tom, so you only had to update her on the lack of Tom you were currently experiencing, as well as Harrison’s comment. She was at work, you knew, so you weren’t expecting a reply for a while, but it helped you to spam message her just to get it out of your brain. 

“Hey,” Harrison drew your attention to him as he closed the oven door. “Have you noticed something strange going on with Tom?” Your heart beat faster, but you scrunched your eyebrows in confusion as a cover. 

“Tom? Strange? What do you mean?” You nailed it. Your voice didn’t even squeak.

“I dunno,” your brother sighed, leaning against the counter. “Like...like something’s on his mind. He’s just seemed....strange.”

You shrugged. “Nope, can’t say I’ve noticed, but I’ve not been round so...” Harrison nodded at your blase answer. “How long has he been acting strange for?”

“Uhh...” He said, scratching his chin. “Not sure, since the weekend?” 

You swallowed, turning away to grab the empty pizza boxes. Strange? Since the weekend? Since you and him....

“Like I said Harry, I’ve not seen him much.”

“No, me either. Seems to always be heading out somewhere.”

“Well,” You say, turning back to him. “He’s coming back tonight right? Want me to ask him for you?” Harrison smiles.

“Yeah, could you? Maybe it’s something I did.”

“Doubt it, but I’ll give it a go.” You smile, ignoring the ripple of excitment you were feeling at getting permission to take Tom into a quiet room away from your brother, and maybe you could....

Snap out of it Luka! You had to talk to Tom before **anything else** could happen. And as if on cue, there was a knock on the front door. 

Wait, a knock? Why would Tom knock?

Harrison left you in the kitchen to answer it, and you listened desperately for any indication that Tom had returned. There were voices, shouts, and laughter, none of which sounded like Tom. Just the guys. Disappointed, you huffed, your plan being delayed yet again, but you plastered on a smile and walked out the kitchen to greet them. 

For the next twenty minutes, while you waited for the pizzas to cook, you tried immersing yourself in the conversation. Having migrated to the front room, Harrison, Ryan, Jacob and Logan were loudly and happily catching up on their weeks, sports stuff (you tuned out at that), and some new game releases. You really were trying to be involved, but every single knock, and creak, and you were whipping your head to the door, expecting Tom to walk in. That hope was never satisfied. 

You offered to dish up the pizza, considering it was Harrison’s house and the others were guests, and Ryan joined you to grab some more beers. He was clinking around in the fridge while you cut up the food. 

“What’s got you so uppity today love?” His voice echoed in the fridge as he rummaged, and you froze.

“What?” You whipped your hair out of your eyes and watched him stand up, hands full of beers, and he walked over and set them on the counter. 

“You’ve been twitchy since we got here. You not like our company?” He smiled. You breathed in. You couldn’t exactly tell Ryan before you told your brother. 

“It’s nothing.”

“Waiting for Tom?” He smirked at you, and you scoffed, but he just kept smiling. 

“As if.”

“You’re such a liar. You two having a...” He looked at the doorway, then leaned back closer to you. “Are you having an affair?” He teased, but you just shoved him off. 

“Harrison _actually_ told me to talk to him, apparently he’s been acting strange around him.” You explained, and it wasn’t exactly a lie...

Ryan nodded, but you could tell he didn’t seem convinced. 

“Strange, because....?”

“I dunno, that’s why I gotta ask him numnuts.” You mocked him, tapping his forehead as you moved to grab the plates. Ryan grabbed your wrist lightly. 

“You know if anything had happened, I wouldn’t tell Harrison.” You frown at his words. “Not before you had a chance to tell him, that is.” 

“Lovely sentiment, but wildly inaccurate.” You say, pulling your wrist out of his grasp and taking the plates. 

“Uh huh. Just in case it gets more accurate, I’d be okay with it.” You look back at him. “You and Tom, I can see it.” You open your mouth to challenge it, because why would he think of you and Tom being together when literally no one and nothing ever insinuated that you even liked him like that?

Then you heard the door open. And your heart thumped. Loud cheering. Tom’s voice. 

“Guess we will find out who’s telling the truth huh?” Ryan whispered, grabbing the beers and giving you a wink before heading out of the kitchen. You wanted to punish him for teasing you, but all that happened was you giving him a somewhat embarrassed smile. You’d spent enough time around Harry’s friends that they knew when things were up, and Ryan was always particularly perceptive. 

It annoyed you. 

But at the moment, that annoyance was being overshadowed by the fact that you could her Tom’s voice spiralling through the air, making you feel excited, and tingly. 

You took a deep breath, and walked into the living room.

“Pizza’s read..” You sang before cutting yourself off when you realised what you were looking at. 

Tom, sitting in his usual recliner chair, with a body on top of him.

A female body. 

With her hands in his hair.

His eyes caught yours immediately. You almost drop the pizza. Ryan suddenly appears by your side, taking the plates. 

“Thanks babes.” Ryan says, drawing your gaze from Tom to him. His eyes widen a little, and his mouth grimaces, as if he was trying to tell you something, but you couldn’t register it. Part of you felt numb, and part of you was throbbing with ...anger? Anxiety? 

You faintly heard the distinct sound of plates being put down on the coffee table, and the guys scrambled to grab a slice. Your eyes floated back over to Tom, who was still looking at you. 

Who the fuck was this?

“This is Marbella, Tom brought her over to join us.” Ryan explained, putting a hand on your back and guiding you to start walking. You followed, unconsciously.

“Yeah, not a problem is it?” Tom asked, you specifically, if his eye contact and enunciation of the ‘t’ on ‘it’, was anything to go by. 

You felt sick, physically sick. It had been four days, and he brought some randomer into their guys night?

Instead you smiled.

“Not at all.” You replied, knowing if Tom was actually paying attention to you, he would pick up on the fact you were lying. You had many tells that gave you away whenever you tried, and you immediately grabbed a beer to hide your main one; picking your fingernails. One hidden, only another ten or so to control. 

“I was just saying how...unique a name it was, Marbella.” Ryan mused, sitting down on the sofa nearest the TV and pulling you down next to him, not moving away when you fell a little bit on top of him. 

“Yeah well,” the girl preened, twirling some of her (evidently) dyed hair around her fingers. “My parents just wanted something _really_ unique.”

“So they chose a major party city in a super well known western country?” You blurted out before you could even stop yourself. Tom narrowed his eyes at you. 

“At least she’s named after something, rather than a name that’s completely made up.” Tom said, a little angrily at you. Before you could even defend yourself, and your mum, Ryan butted in. 

“All words are made up mate.” Ryan laughed, leaning back and throwing an arm on the back of the sofa, incredibly close to your shoulders. You noticed the bottle in Tom’s ‘free’ hand twist a little, like he was adjusting his grip, but the movement stopped as quickly as it had started. 

That sparked a lively debate about the most ridiculous words the guys had ever heard of, and the attention was swiftly and permanently off you and Tom. But you still felt as though you were being watched. And you were, to an extent. 

Everytime you looked over at the new ‘couple’, Tom was looking at you. Even when he tried to kiss his new..._Marbella_, his eyes would open briefly to see if you were watching. Which you were, of course, because you had no idea how to act cool at the minute. 

What was making it worse, was the fact that Ryan seemed to be tending to you a lot. Touching your thigh, passing you another beer when yours ran out, massaging your shoulders, making a deal about looking at your necklace and holding it, turning it over, leaning in close to really see the detail.   
Everytime you caught Ryan’s attention and tried to give him a ‘what the fuck’ face, he just smiled and joined back in to the conversation of the room. 

As the evening went on, the film on the TV, you slowly eased your watchful gaze of Tom and his ..._girl_. You instead got comfortable on the sofa, and by the end of film, you were practically snuggling with Ryan. It wasn’t out of the ordinary, considering that apart from Tom, Ryan was one of Harry’s friends that you spent the most time with, so no one said anything about you being in his arms. The few times you did peek a glance at Tom though, he was glaring. But fuck him, you thought, if he’s bringing some random girl to guys night and making out with her in front of you, then you were definitely allowed to have a cuddle.

It got to the point where Logan and Jacob announced their leaving plans, because they had work tomorrow, and Ryan tapped your shoulder to get you to move off him.

“Usually I’d stay sweetheart, but I got a lift with Jacob, and I am definitely not getting the bus.” Ryan said, smiling a little as you sat up and stretched. 

“Wondered why he wasn’t drinking. It’s fine, I’ll go sleep in the boring bed.”

“I know it’s nowhere near as good as my arms though.” He laughed, standing up as the others collected their things. “Maybe next week.” He gave you a wink, which made you a little warm. Through the gap between his arm and his body, you spotted Tom, his mouth open slightly in shock at your exchange. Well...it wouldn’t hurt would it?

You looked up at Ryan and smiled. “Counting on it.” You said, as sweetly as you could muster. Ryan wiggled his eyebrows as if to say ‘good job’, and said his goodbyes to the rest of the room. He didn’t received anymore than a grunt from Tom. 

You stood, vaguely hearing Party City girl’s sickly voice behind you, and you started clearing up the mess alongside your brother.

“Hey Harry, can I shower and crash here?” You asked, picking up the array of empty beer bottles.

“Like you need to ask.” Your brother responded, following you to the kitchen. 

“Well...” You say as you both starting throwing the bottles in the bin. “I’m assuming I can’t use Tom’s room anymore so.” You shrugged, going to put the plates in the sink. 

The usual set up involved Tom staying in Harrison’s room, and you would take Tom’s bed. That suddenly seemed wildly inappropriate now. 

“Yeah...I guess that’s why he’s been strange.” You looked over at Harry, who was leaning against the counter, staring at the floor. “What do you...” He waved one hand. “What do you think of her?”

You looked at Harrison, who was now watching your face fight a few different emotions. Disappointment, upset, amusement. Harrison was asking you because he _didn’t_ like her. This was how he communicated it whenever one of his friends started dating someone he disapproved of. It made you smile, knowing that he disliked Marbella as much as you did, although certainly for different reasons. 

“She’s...interesting.” You whispered, unsure of how well they could hear you from the other room. Harrison raised his eyebrow at you. “We’ve only met her once.”

He rolled his eyes. “Let’s hope there’s not a second time.” He muttered it, to make sure only you could hear, and it made you laugh as you clapped a hand on his shoulder, and made your way to the shower. 

You spent longer than normal under the water, washing yourself a few times, something about the evening making you feel like...unclean. Flirting with Ryan? Seeing Tom? Seeing Tom with _her_? Lying to your brother?

A lot of spinning plates. A lot of emotional build up, and let downs, rollercoastering through your mind. Mostly disappointment, lurching its way back up your body everytime you thought of how you’d waited so long to speak to Tom, only to find his hands on someone else, his lips on someone else. 

Serves you right for telling him this was over, Luka. 

You turned the water off, wrapped yourself in a towel, and headed out, remembering that your clothes were still in Tom’s room, where you had put them before realising he wasn’t alone. You walked to his door, sighing before knocking. God this was embarrassing. You’d never felt this self-conscious in their flat before. Then again, you hadn’t slept with Tom, told him to fuck off then seen him with someone else before. 

There was no answer from Tom’s room. You knocked again, but it was silent. You turned the handle and creaked it open, slowly peering inside. 

“Tom? I just need..” You stopped talking when you realised you were looking at an empty room. Shrugging slightly, you walked in and started rooting through your bag on the bed. Tom was probably still downstairs entertaining his ‘special guest’. You found and pulled on your underwear, keeping your towel on, then began looking for your pyjamas. 

A creak resonated from behind you, making you jump and spin round. 

“What are you doing?” Tom said, standing in the open doorway. You steeled your bubbling nerves. You instinctively clutch your towel to your body, noticing how his eyes snapped to the movement. 

“I left my clothes in here. I’m leaving, don’t worry.” You said, bending down to grab your bag, but you stood back up when you saw him close the door and step towards you. 

“Tonight was fun, wasn’t it?” He drawled, his arms crossing over his chest as he stopped walking. 

“Yeah, great fun.” You rolled your eyes, looking everywhere but him. “Where’s your new lover?”

“Just saw her out. What’s that tone for?”

“Nothing.” You sighed, grabbing your bag, but Tom quickly walked over and took it out of your hands. “I need my bag.”

“Not like I haven’t seen it before.” He said, smirking, and your face flushed with the memory. But he didn’t have the right to say that sort of thing anymore. 

“Well, now you have _Marbella’s_ body to gawk over.” You spat, reaching for your bag, but his hand jerked backwards, holding it just out of your reach. His eyes narrowed. 

“Jealous? Did you forget _you_ ended this?” He asked ruefully, making you clench your teeth. 

“Did you forget it was _five days ago_?” You looked at him, your eyes feeling wet with the start of tears. “Never pegged you for someone who fucked around that quick.”

His eyes narrowed, and he dropped your bag to the floor with a thud. 

“You and Ryan seemed pretty close.” You huffed at his words, raising an eyebrow, as if to say ‘so what?’ to him. “What’s that about? Just making your way through all you brother’s friends are-”

You couldn’t stop the anger that flashed through you. You slapped him. 

Your hand hit his cheek with a resounding _crack_.His face swivelled with the impact. 

He slowly looked back at you, his hand on his cheek that was now blossoming with a red handprint. His eyes wide, and furious. You expected him to retaliate. You swallowed, wondering what he was going to do.

His hand grabbed your waist, his other hand grabbed your neck, and he pulled you into a kiss. Heady, passionate, breathy, like he was trying to push a million emotions into your mouth with his tongue, swiping across your bottom lip before biting it, groaning, then diving back for more. You melted, into him, into his touch, your own panting mingling with his as he gripped your skin, as if scared you were going to disappear. 

You inhaled as your mind cleared, putting your hands on his chest and pushing him off you. You both breathed heavily, staring at each other.  
What the hell was he thinking? What were you thinking? Regardless of whether you wanted to start up a relationship, he had a girl, and that girl wasn’t you. 

You pushed past him, leaning down to pick up your bag and walking to the door. You couldn’t do this. You couldn’t deal with this right now. 

Before you could touch the door handle, a hand gripped your shoulder and spun you back round. 

Tom pushed you against the door, and kissed you again. Your bag slipped through your fingers, as your head thudded against the wood, his body pressing against you, his hand sliding round your neck as he tilted your mouth up to his, opening your lips and swiping his tongue across yours. 

Your mouths part, foreheads resting against each other as his hands scramble to pull your towel away. Finally, the cloth falls from your body, and he growls before his mouth attacks your neck. Your eyes close, and your head tilts up to give him more access, your leg bending and curling round his hip, urging him closer. One hand came to your ass, gripping, squeezing, kneading the flesh as his tongue and his teeth moved over your neck, his other hand sliding to your underwear and rubbing your clit through the fabric. 

You gasped.

Your eyes shot open. 

You pulled his hair, his mouth popping off you, and pushed him back.

You swallowed. He breathed.

“What?” He panted. You frowned, and the anger from before bubbled inside you again. 

“What? What do you mean _what_?” You snarled, bending to grab your towel and hurriedly wrapping it around you again. “You don’t get to do that.”

“Right, because you told me to stop this?” 

“Because you chose to bring your little girlfriend here!” You half-yelled, making his face drop in realisation.

“Luka...you can’t seriously think...” He said, stepping forward, slowly. “She means nothing.”

“Then why bring her?” You asked as he stood in front of you. You could feel tears starting to build in your eyes. 

“I wanted....I wanted to...” He sighed, a hand coming up to your cheek and stroking your skin. “I can’t stop thinking about you.”

“Then tell me that.” You spat, childishly, like you also hadn’t been avoiding him. You grabbed his hand and threw it off you, grabbed your bag, and walked out of his room. 

You stomped into Harrison’s room, throwing your bag on the bed and flopping down after. You wanted to cry, and scream, and throw something. 

You also wanted Tom to follow you and kiss you again. 

You let out a muffled groan. 

Then the door open, igniting the thump in your heart.

“What are you doing?” The thump dwindled at the sound of your brother’s voice. You cleared your throat, still facing down on the bed. 

“I couldn’t be bothered to get dressed.” You lied. 

“Right, well I’m not sleeping in the same bed as you until you put clothes on.” He said, as you heard him shuffling around the room. “Oh and I just took the bins out, so you don’t have to worry.”

You pushed yourself up to sit. 

“Oh, thanks.” You mumbled. You always took the bins out, as a sort of thanks for them letting you stay. That’ll mean that Harry didn’t hear a single thing that just happened. 

“What’s that? On your neck?” His question snapped you back. He was walking towards you pointing. “It’s all red.”

“Oh!” You clapped your hand over it. “Water. From the shower. You know I like it stupidly hot. It’ll go down in a min.” Harry nodded, then walked to his drawers to start getting dressed for bed. 

How could you be so stupid? Kissing your brother’s best friend, in their house, when said best friend had just had another girl here, after you slept together and you said that it was over. 

You were a ridiculous excuse of a human being.


	7. Having The Feels

The next week, Saturday morning, your brother messaged the group again to say they were all going to a party. Silver peeked over your shoulder at the ding of the notification. 

“What do you think?” You asked, chewing your bottom lip.

“Well...we do like a party.” She replied with a grin. “Maybe...do you think Tom will be there?” Your stomach did a flip-flop. 

“I suppose, it sounds like everyone is going.” You thought aloud, but when you looked at your best friend, her expression made you uncomfortable. “What are you thinking?”

“Well,” She smiled. “He hasn’t spoken to you yet, right?” You shook your head. “Maybe we can _encourage_ him to do something.” 

“Silver, just tell me what’s going through your evil mind.” You groaned, but her smile just grew wider. 

“Simple, we go to the party, dance with someone else, Tom gets soooo jealous that he has to admit he wants you.”

You breathed. Watching your best friend with glee on her face as she explained her brilliant plan, but you just got a sinking feeling.

“You want me to play the same game that got me in this mess?”

“Yeah...makes it nice and ...cyclical?” She questioned, not even sure herself, and we both burst out laughing. “Even if it doesn’t work, it’ll be fun. We can get dressed up, find ourselves some nice arm candy, have a great time.”

“It’s so childish.” You said, pinching the bridge of your nose.

“But you need an answer. You’ve been pining for him for two weeks now, and neither of you are talking about it. Worst case scenario, he doesn’t go for it, you have your answer either way.”

You thought about it. And thought about it some more. Silver had some truth in her words, but you really didn’t know if you wanted to go back to acting like you were in high school, using someone to make the object of your affection jealous. 

On the other hand, you wanted your answer, and you were too anxious to outright ask him. 

“Okay.” You finally sighed. “Fine, what the hell. If it goes tits up I can at least drown my sorrows.” 

Silver squealed and jumped up.

“Yay! Right, we need to get you an outfit that makes any person looking at you drool, which means...” She trailed off, raising her eyebrows. You groaned. 

“Nooo I hate shopping!” You whined, but she grabbed your hand and pulled you up off the sofa.

“Honey I know your clothes, nothing will cut it.”

“Hey my clothes are fine! Got him to sleep with me in the first place, didn’t it?” You defended.

“Yes,” She agreed whilst pushing you to the door, collecting your bags and phones as you went. “But now we need him to _need_ you. I know just the place.”

A few hours later, you had a new outfit, and you were feeding pasta to yourself and Silver while she did your hair, music blasting through your apartment, singing along. 

The party was at Logan’s house, because he was rich and had his own townhouse, but that meant either a 25 minute train ride, or a 15 minute taxi that would cost £30. You had about three hours until you were due to leave, hopefully arriving when it was in full swing.

You thought about Silver’s plan. 

“So...what do I have to do? To make Tom admit that he...” You waved the fork in the air, looking at her in the mirror as she wound another piece of hair around the curler. 

“The same that you did to make Steven jealous.” She said in a matter of fact way that made you roll you eyes. 

“We were trying to get Steven to leave me alone, I want Tom to do the opposite.”

“Ooh I bet!” She giggled. “Same thing, it all makes the men crazy. Just a bit of flirting, touching the arm, dancing, Tom will be all ‘ohmygod who is that bitch touching **my** Luka, I must go and intervene and show everybody she is mine!’” You chuckled as her voice mocked Tom badly. 

“Yeah. Gonna be real simple, then we will live happily ever after, right?” Silver nodded at your question. You looked at your hair as Silver put the curlers down and ran her fingers through it.

“Beautiful. Now for make up, so finish your food.” 

You shoved the rest of the pasta in your mouth as she started gathering her make up things. You let her do the bare minimum to your face, which was a debate in itself, then you finally got dressed. Silver wanted you to wear a dress, but you shoved that idea aside pretty quickly. What you ended up buying was a pair of distressed, ripped, high waisted black shorts, a purple shimmery loose fit top that showed your ‘girls’ (and a cross-strapped bralette that covered some of your ‘girls’), purple knee high socks, and your own Dr Martens. You loved the ensemble, grungy with some colour. You felt comfortable, and when you were comfortable, you felt more confident to enact the plan. Your hair was beautifully curled then brushed out to be loose and a bit messy, your eyeliner sharp and precise, and a dark purple lipstick was glossed over your lips. You felt badass. 

You decided on the train to get yourselves there, working out the small details of your mission. Your first task was to find someone to help you enact your plan. Then, find Tom, make him jealous, then talk about what’s going on between you. You bounced between being hesitant and excited, between finally getting your answer and leading some poor soul on for your own benefit. 

As you reached Logan’s house, you could hear the music thumping from the end of the street, and multi-coloured lights streaming from the windows. Silver grabbed your arm and looped it around hers. 

“You ready sweetcheeks?” She cooed, as a smile spread over your face. 

“About as ready as I’ll ever be.” You replied, shaking your shoulders loose of tension. “It’s a fabulous night to use someone to get someone else to sleep with you.”

“That’s the attitude!” Silver laughed as you crossed the threshold, swerving past the crowd in the hallway and dragging Silver behind you as you head towards the kitchen. 

You plonked your alcohol in the fridge, grabbing two cans and handing one to Silver. You both took a long sip, then looked around.

“So,” Silver said. “Anyone take your fancy yet?”

“I’ve been here two seconds, Sil, I haven’t had a chance.”

“Haven’t had a chance to what?” Ryan said, sliding up next to you. “Luka, Silver, looking ravishing as always.” He grinned, hip bumping you, and winking at your best friend. You laughed, then caught Silver’s eyes lighting up. 

“What?” You asked her, suddenly very concerned.

“Didn’t you say that Tom brought up you two being close?” She pointed between you. You nodded, and Ryan looked at you and Silver with a very confused look on his face.

“What’s going on here ladies?” Ryan asked.

“We need to make Tom jealous.” Silver explained before you could answer, making you groan. Ryan just smiled.

“So I _was_ right.” He nudged you, and you rolled your eyes. He drank the rest of his beer, putting it on the counter, then rubbed his hands together. 

“What’s the plan?” 

“I don’t know if I-” You started to say but Ryan waved his hand. 

“Nah, Silver’s right, he was pissed last week, and all you did was sit next to me. I’m game for this. This is gonna be so fun! What do we do first?”

“I think we need to find where he is, subtly, then you guys can go wild.” Silver grinned. You shook your head. 

“No.” You said, just as someone passed you to get to the fridge. You all waited until they’d left, because you didn’t know who knew who here. “If we make a plan of what to do and what to say it’ll be way too obvious that this is an act.” 

“Well, how did you do it with Tom?” Silver asked, and you saw Ryan frown in your peripherals. 

“Wait you’ve already done this?” He whispered. You sighed. 

“You might as well tell him.” Silver shrugged at you. You turned to Ryan.

“A couple weeks ago, Tom escorted me to a work party, pretending to be my boyfriend so that this guy would back off. We just...went a bit far.” You explained. 

“Meaning they slept together.” Silver concluded, making Ryan spit out his beer that he just took a sip of. 

“Why does everyone do that when they’re told?” You laughed. 

“I’m sorry,” Ryan said, wiping his mouth. “I thought you two were just _having the feels_, I didn’t know you actually did something about it!” You shrugged, shuffling your feet and having some of your drink. “I take it you agreed it was a drunken mistake and now you’re regretting it?” 

You grimaced. “Not exactly...”

“Tom wanted to carry on, Luka said no. Then he brought Marbella over.” Silver answered for you. Ryan made an ‘o’ shape with his mouth as all the pieces clicked into place. 

“That makes more sense. So you fobbed him off, he got a rebound, you want him back?” Ryan asked you, and you nodded. “Ahh, women.” You smacked him in the arm, but he just laughed and flung his arm around your shoulder. “I’m kidding, but you got to admit, you kinda brought it on yourself by not knowing what you wanted.” You pouted, like a sulking child. “Also your fault for not realising that Tom was crushing on you, it was obviously going to happen.”

“I didn’t know anything!” You protested. “I just felt comfortable around him so figured he’d be the best person to fake with.” 

“Bet you didn’t fake it later on.” Ryan teased. You elbowed him in the stomach as Silver cackled. “Okay okay, I’ll stop.” A brief silence fell over the three of you. “At the end of the day, I’m cool with whatever you want me to do, as long as you stop moping and he stops being a tool.”

“I...I think we should just...be normal. With a bit extra...”

“Flirt?” Ryan winked, and you nodded. “What are you not okay with?” You thought about it. “Can we kiss?” He whispered. 

“Right now?!”

“No, just, if it seems right.” He looked round then leant in a bit closer. “This can be like, our first time feeling things out. Seems logical after our snuggle session at Harrison’s, I can be trying to get on you, maybe we dance, have a smooch?”

“Yeah...yeah that seems okay. I’m not sleeping with you though.” You laughed, painfully aware that this is a similar plan that got you in this mess. 

“Depends how good I kiss doesn’t it?” He smiled. “Nah, I know we won’t. I want you and Tom to get together, I’m just giving a helping hand where I can.”

“I feel like this is a solid plan.” Silver smiled, holding her drink up. “To Luka getting the feels.” You all laughed and clinked your cans together. 

“Right, I’m gonna mingle, I’ll find you later sweetcheeks.” Ryan pecked your cheek and waggled his eyebrows before leaving you both in the kitchen. You took a deep breath, and faced your best friend. 

“This is gonna work, right?” You asked, suddenly feeling very anxious.

“Of course. Remember, this is about getting your answer. Tom will see you two, and either have no reaction or some kind of reaction. If he sticks his tongue down Marbella’s throat, or is angry with you, you know he’s jealous. Then you can have that conversation.” You nodded. 

“What if he has no reaction?” Silver looked sad at your question. 

“Then that’s your answer, and you can move on.” 

You nodded, looking at the floor. You knew which outcome you wanted, but your stomach felt tense with dread at the thought that you wouldn’t get that. 

You gulped the remainder of your drink, crushed the can, and threw it on the counter, looking your bestie in the eyes.

“Let’s do this.”

For the next hour, you and Silver socialised, catching up with people you hadn’t seen in a while, dancing a little bit in the living room, and subtly trying to spot the object of your affection. You hadn’t seen Tom yet, nor Ryan, nor your brother. It wasn’t until you both wandered to the garden that someone grabbed your arm. 

“Luka!” You turned to see Ryan, and smiled. 

“Hey Ryan!” He pulled you in for a hug, and you felt him nuzzle his nose into your neck, tickling your skin and making you laugh a little. 

“You girls okay?” He asked as he pulled back, and you both nodded. “Logan set up a beer pong table, interested in playing?” He winked at you, and you figured that meant that this was the first step in your plan. 

“Yeah, sounds good.” You replied with a smile. “Who’s on the teams?”

“I thought that you and I could be on a team, and maybe Silver can go with...” He looked around until he spotted his prey. “Harry!” He yelled, and you turned to see your brother looking up at him. “Beer pong?!” Ryan shouted, and your brother smiled and walked over. 

“Yeah, alright,” Harrison said, looking between you and Silver. “Who am I with?”

“You’re with me hotstuff.” Silver teased, dragging him by the arm to the table. You and Ryan followed slowly behind them. 

“You look great tonight, Luka.” Ryan said loudly, and despite knowing this was an act, you felt yourself blush. 

“Thanks, you too.” You responded as you took your positions at the end of the table opposite Harry and Silver. Ryan started organising the cups. 

“Don’t get any ideas sis, we are gonna beat your ass.” Harrison teased, but you just stuck your tongue out at him. 

“Awfully confident for someone that always ‘misses the laundry basket’.” You retaliated, making him clutch his chest dramatically. 

“You wound me.”

“Alright enough trash talk!” Ryan announced, pouring the shots into the cups. “We about ready?” 

“Yup!” Silver said, pouring her last shot and straightening up. “We will let you go first, you might need the extra headstart.” 

The crowd that had gathered around you erupted in a unanimous ‘Ooooo’, but you just laughed, and took the ball from Ryan.

“Get ready to eat your words.” You said, before lining up your shot, and throwing the ball.

The game was fun. Ryan was being very good at the acting, touching your waist to hand you a cup to drink, making little flirty comments, winking at you a lot. It didn’t sound like much, but you could feel the difference to how he usually was with you. You tried focusing on the game, and on responding to Ryan, but your mind was shouting at you to look in the crowd and see if you could spot Tom. You resisted the urge, knowing it would likely prove that this was a ruse, but your beer pong game was definitely affected by the distraction. Your brother wasn’t saying anything about you and Ryan’s sudden flirting, but Silver would catch your eye with a look that said ‘well done, keep going’, so you knew it was doing something. You just hoped that somewhere, Tom was watching too, and he noticed. 

You’d like to say you smashed the game and won victoriously, but it lasted a while, because apparently, you were all horrible at throwing things. After a lot of fluke shots, each team had one cup left, and after a few tries on each side, Silver managed to land her shot. 

“NO! DEFEAAAAT!” Ryan yelled, dropping to his knees and burying his head in his hands as the crowd cheered, and Silver and Harrison did a victory dance. You laughed at the absurdity of your friends, and held up the cup for Ryan. 

“This one is all you babe.” You said, pushing it into his hands, until he took it and downed it. Your brother walked round the table to your side, holding out his hand. 

“Good game,” Harrison said. You went to shake his hand but he swiped it away at the last second and smoothed his hair. “PSYCH!” Him and Silver both burst out laughing, and you just hit his arm. 

“Rude.” You pouted. Ryan shuffled to his feet and tapped your shoulder. 

“Come on,” Ryan said to you. “Let’s leave the victors and sulk inside.” 

“Fine, but I don’t know how I’m going to have a good time knowing I lost such an important game!” You sighed, pulling an overdramatically sad face at your brother before following Ryan into the house. The cheers emanating from behind you suggested that Harrison and Silver were likely doing a victory dance, and you looked over your shoulder to see them doing a very awkward robot, making you laugh. 

Ryan grabbed your hand as he weaved through the crowd, leading you to the living room, and plonking down on a spare seat, pulling you next to him. 

“That was fun.” He said, throwing his arm casually around your shoulder. 

“Yeah, kinda wish we did better though.” You replied, making him laugh. 

“We were all rubbish.”

“I know. We should practice and smash them next time.” You said, holding out your pinkie. He smiled, looping his pinkie around yours and nodding. 

“Deal.”

You opened your mouth, about to start a new conversation, when a familiar song came out of the speakers. 

“OOH I love this song!” You squealed, jumping up and walking backwards towards the middle of the room. “Come and dance with me!” You held your hands out to Ryan, who smiled, and stood up, taking one of your hands and spinning you around. 

“My pleasure, m’lady.” Ryan bowed slightly, your hand still in his, and then you both started dancing. He kept hold of your hand as you both sang and wiggled, he would occasionally spin you into his arms and back out, and you all round had a great time. You were never a great dancer, but Ryan danced just as awkwardly as you, which made you feel better. Briefly, you forgot about your whole mission. 

That was, until a particularly _sexy_ song came on, and Ryan pulled on your hand until you were forced to step closer to him. You froze as he wrapped his arms around your waist and smiled down at you. 

“Still wanna keep dancing?” He asked you, moving slightly to the beat as he waited for your answer. 

“Yep, it’s fine.” You replied, smiling as your arms came up around his neck. 

“I will disclose something.” He leant down to your ear, his voice dropping to a whisper. “I don’t have a crush on you.” You laughed. “But, I apologise if things...happen.”

“What do you mean?” He pulled back at your question, but he kept his face relatively close to you. 

“I am human, you’re attractive. If we kiss and it’s awesome I may have some...reactions.” Your eyebrows shot up. “But obviously I’m not gonna act on it, it’s just...you know...male biology.”

“Right, sure sure.” You looked at him, and he was smiling. “What?”

“Nothing just, expected a lot more outrage at that.”

“Well, you can hardly control it. Like you said, I’m hot as hell.”

“Yes you are, I just want to make it clear that, if anything makes you uncomfortable, just tell me to stop. Otherwise, I’ll put my game face on.” He winked at you, and you laughed. 

“I can handle it. Show me how you woo all your conquests.” 

“Well, the dancing is a good start.” He said with a smile, pulling on your waist so that your body was pressed against his. “I usually just tell them how beautiful they look, and go from there. How would you do it?”

“Hmm..” You thought, as you both danced slightly, more involved with the conversation than the music. “I don’t really do anything. I tend to just stand there and people will throw themselves at my feet.” 

Ryan looked at you for a split second before laughing.

“That’s a nice fantasy you got there, Luka.” He teased. “How do you feel about some suggestive dancing?”

“How suggestive?”

“Completely PG13. Ish.” He added quickly. “I’m obviously not gonna stick my hand in your shorts, but maybe a little booty grinding?” 

“Booty grinding?” You laughed. “Does that really work?” 

“Well,” Ryan leant back down to your ear. “He’s been watching us this whole time, we could find out if it works or not.” Your body stiffened, and you felt hot as you realised who he was talking about. 

Tom. Tom was watching you, apparently. Right now. 

“Chill out,” Ryan’s voice whispered in your ear again. “Stop being rigid or he’ll know something was wrong.” You nodded, but you found it difficult to relax. Ryan noticed, and laughed, before taking your hands off his neck. Suddenly, he was spinning you around, so your back was facing him, and he wrapped his arms around you, pulling you back so that you could feel his stomach pressing against your spine. You were too scared to look up, you didn’t know _where_ Tom was, and you were afraid that if you caught his eye, he would know instantly. 

“So what do we do?” You murmured to Ryan over your shoulder, as he started swaying you both a little more. 

“Act like you’re having a good time.” He whispered back, his lips so close to your ear that they brushed over your skin. 

“Okay.”

“Act like you want me as much as you want him.” You tensed again.

“I can’t-“

“Just pretend I’m him, you’re dancing with him, how would you show him you want him to take you upstairs?” You gulped at his question. It was now or never Luka. You inhaled, then took one of your hands out of his grip and reached up to cup his neck behind your shoulder. 

“Reckon you can handle it?” 

“Gimme all you got Luka.” 

You steeled your nerves, and felt determination rush through you. You just had to act like it was Tom dancing behind you, not somewhere in front of you, watching. You started moving your hips in a slow circle, pressing back, then you felt Ryan respond, moving his hips with yours, keeping them connected as you let the rhythm control you. His hands tightened across your stomach as you both moved, and you had to admit, you were making yourself a bit hot and bothered. 

Ryan’s lips briefly skimmed across your neck, and after a split second of shock, you heard him speak. 

“Can I kiss you?” He asked, his voice a whisper, and a little breathless. 

You nodded, not looking round at him, and then his mouth was planting a small, testing kiss to your neck. After you didn’t move out of his grasp, he kissed you again, and again, until it was open-mouthed, and admittedly, a bit **hot**. 

You let your head fall back a little as he kept kissing you, and you felt your breaths get heavier with each one. Your bodies pressed harder together, then his left hand left your stomach and came up to your cheek. He guided your face round to his, your body turning in his hold so you were facing each other, then he kissed you on the lips.

It was fine.

You knew instantly that this wasn’t going to turn out the same as Tom. Ryan was a good kisser, but his lips were too soft, and he tasted different. His hands were gripping your neck and your waist in a different way than Tom did. It wasn’t bad, and you returned the kiss, but it was just....fine. 

Then the kiss stopped. You weren’t being held anymore. You opened your eye to see Ryan looking to his left, the front of his shirt being gripped by a fist of someone else. 

Tom. 

You felt cold, anxious and nauseous all at once, but Ryan? Ryan was just looking at Tom with a smile on his face. Tom looked mad. 

“What the **fuck** is going on here?” Tom spat at Ryan. Then you realised.

Tom was jealous. 

You felt the muscles at the corner of your mouth twitch, wanting to break into a smile, but you fought it as hard as you could. 

You had your answer. 

You put your hand on Tom’s arm, and his glare visibly softened.

“Tom, what are you doing?” You asked, sweetly, and politely, as if nothing was happening. Tom huffed, then finally looked at you. His eyes were swimming with emotion. 

“What are you doing kissing him?” Tom asked you, his fist still wrapped in Ryan’s shirt. 

“Umm...” You looked to Ryan briefly, who shrugged. “Kissing him?” You saw the muscle twitch in Tom’s jaw. 

“Is that really what you want?” Tom asked, but this question was a lot less angry, and a lot quieter. You held his gaze. Then Ryan slowly tugged his shirt out of Tom’s fist, and you both looked at him. 

“You’re welcome.” Ryan said, smiling at you, and kissed your temple, before walking off, leaving you both standing awkwardly in the middle of the living room. Neither of you said anything. After fifteen seconds, you finally gave in. 

“Let’s talk.” You said, before spinning on your heel and walking towards the stairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey fans, sorry it's been a while, hope this makes up for it! 
> 
> I'm still working full time (yes even during lockdown) and while I usually write in the evenings and weekends, lately this spare time has been taken up with #blacklivesmatter. I've been reading, researching, listening, sharing, donating and signing petitions, trying to do my part to instill some change. I'm in a high risk group so can't go outside unfortunately (bleh) which means no protesting, but I've been trying to do all I can from my house. Hopefully you are all aware of the movement, and in support of attempts to end racism.
> 
> Remember, we are living in a time of a global pandemic and a revolution, after living through a whole host of other things our generation has been exposed to for the first time. We are doing a great job just surviving through this, there is no right way to feel, but if you are struggling, my inbox is open :)
> 
> Thank you for continuing to read my brainchilds, it's providing me some sanity to be able to immerse into another world, even briefly, and I hope it's making some of you feel some semblance of normailty too <3


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